Written by: Beck
From
Vice Squad:
In Salt Lake City late last year, federal judge Paul G. Cassell was forced by the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines to sentence a 25-year-old small-quantity marijuana dealer to 55 years in prison. The sentence was so harsh because the dealer had a gun on him during two of the transactions. Two hours before that, Judge Cassell sentenced a man to 22 years in prison for killing an elderly woman by beating her to death with a log. The latter crime was not subject to the mandatory minimum guidelines.
How is it that such situations which so clearly and obviously do not serve the public interest can occur without outrage and call for change? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the guy who beat an elderly woman to death with a fucking stick should be spending a lot more time in jail than the guy selling weed--regardless of how long you think the drug dealer should be behind bars.
