Justice Served? Man Serving Life Sentence For Stealing TV

WRAL.com ^ | November 25, 2003 | Gerald Owens

[Russian Sage]

TILLERY, N.C. -- Does the punishment fit the crime? That is the underlying question in our legal system. The answer to that question has changed over time.

In 1970, a day laborer named Junior Allen was given a life sentence for a crime he would likely get probation for today.

[goldstategop]

True... three years and parole for killing a child while this guy gets no parole for stealing a TV set 33 years ago? I am with the D.A on this one.

[Devil_Anse]

The headline makes this sound like the crime of THEFT when it was actually the crime of BURGLARY. Two very different things.

Stealing doesn't necessarily involve invading the victim's home. The victim's home is the most private, most personal, absolutely the last-ditch hope of the victim of having any place safe to go when he has to sleep and can't watch his back every minute. Once that home is shown to be unsafe, the victim has literally no safe place to go.

And Junior "struggled with the victim??" What's THAT all about? Sounds very, very much like someone could have been KILLED. And as we know, that happens all the time: someone surprises a burglar in their home, and ends up DEAD.

What was Junior's prior criminal history? Sounds like the article is a bit reticent about that. Why the secrecy?

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, in 1970 black and white TV's were quite common. You could still see 'em for sale new in most TV stores.

They had value, more so than they might have now.

[Devil_Anse]

THANK YOU. I knew it was out there.

An 87-year-old woman. Why, she could have died of a heart attack just from the shock and fear of being burglarized.

Now I'm thinking of the old ladies who had their houses broken into, and who weren't as lucky as this one was.

[Devil_Anse]

"stole"

It was not the crime of THEFT. It was the crime of (Residential) BURGLARY. There is an important difference.

[Devil_Anse]

He may have gotten a sentence of life in prison b/c of a prior criminal history. Before "three strikes" laws, judges did consider the offender's criminal history when sentencing. All this "three strikes" stuff did not suddenly appear out of the air. It came from the experience of earlier judges.

[TMSuchman]

There is more to this story that we are not being told. A judge would not just give a life sentance[sp] for this.

so what is not being said?

[Devil_Anse]

Thank you for a great post.

[Devil_Anse]

BURGLARY is not a small crime. It is a very dangerous crime which can often result in the death of the victim, or even the death of the offender.

You wouldn't want your precious Junior to be shot by a homeowner. He's safer where he is.

[Devil_Anse]

What evidence do YOU have for your aggressive disparagement of others' views? You, OR "Rich Rosen"? (snicker... snicker...SNORFFFF!)

This is such an obvious rabble-rousing ploy by Mr. "Rich Rosen". And OF COURSE the victim is not alive to say how the man BEAT her. How conveeeenient! Oh--excuse me! Not beat her--"struggled with her"! (Struggled with an 87-year-old woman. Wonder who had the upper hand.)

And gee, I'll bet the sentencing judge isn't alive, either. How 'bout that.

And how does Mr. Rosen know that "this is the first case where a black man did such-and-such to a white woman in this state and wasn't charged for it?" Has he read all the cases? Has he been there for all the crimes? He is a loudmouth, typical hater, an ambitious little attorney, and he is talking out his ass. He himself has no idea what Junior did to that old lady. But I can tell you this: in the animal world, the weak are picked off by the hyenas and dragged into the brush to be torn to pieces and consumed. That's the world we have when we let people like "Junior" continue with their crimes.

[Devil_Anse]

Take it easy. The guy's defense lawyer says he fought with the elderly victim. Read the articles. The guy had a prior record of several felonies.

The guy has had numerous parole hearings. He probably would have been paroled long ago if he'd had a clean prison record. But this guy couldn't even keep a clean record while in prison.

[Devil_Anse]

He apparently got "life with parole". That is by no means a life sentence. Not even close. He has had chances for parole. Parole has been for HIM to win, or to lose, and his behavior has been such that he has so far failed to win it. That's HIS fault. Others have won parole; others have kept their nose clean while in prison, so as to win parole. Has he? Apparently not.

[Publius6961]

A black and white TV? I agree, life in prison bit harsh for that.

Of course you do. As the next poster points out, home invasion and assault were not mentioned in the article, just as I suspected after viewing the headline, There is more to the story than just "stealing a TV".

Why do you suppose the story was "spun" that way? To appeal to the superficial PC mind, of course.

[Publius6961]

I see you're still inventing your absurd scenarios in order to have something to knock down. You had to repeat 6th grade again?

[TaxRelief]

Why does this story get posted again and again?

[Devil_Anse]

Why do you suppose the story was spun that way? To appeal to the superficial PC mind, of course.

Good thinking. But IMO, the story was spun that way for an even MORE banal reason: to advance the so-called career of a little attorney named Rich Rosen, who goes around making irresponsible generalizations about how they always do it in these blighted places. (Places that he probably has no more knowledge of than of the planet Uranus.)

[liberallarry]

BURGLARY is not a small crime. It is a very dangerous crime which can often result in the death of the victim, or even the death of the offender

How often?

And if it doesn't why should a criminal be punished for a possibility?

[liberallarry]

If Rosen doesn't know it's certain you know much, much less. As for hating...read your own post.

[liberallarry]

I see you're still inventing your absurd scenarios in order to have something to knock down

I think you mean that Ken Lay hasn't been convicted of anything and therefore I presume too much when I say he and the other Enron execs are big-time swindlers?
Well, then substitute Fastow who's admitted to guilt...or some other, similar perps who've been frog-marched recently...or Keating, Milken, and many others like them. See any of them serving life-sentences for stealing hundreds of millions (or more)...and damaging the lives of thousands?

[Devil_Anse]

Burglary is not a small crime.

Are you asking me to compile statistics? You wouldn't trust them if I DID bring them to your lazy, argumentative, discontented, angry little door. (Or... hey, I'll break in and leave them on your kitchen table, 'kay?)

You consider it not important if a person's home is breached, if their last refuge for safety is taken away from them? You don't think it's dangerous when someone is so bold as to walk up to a victim, break in their door, and casually treat the victim's stuff as his own?

Would you do me a favor? Pick some houses that look like they have some really good stuff in them. Break in and take what you want. Let's see how safe you are while doing it. And let's see how you react if an owner tries to capture you and get you put in jail. I think you'd be even more agitated and irrational than you are now, as you sit hoping for an escalating argument. Having an agitated and irrational stranger in one's home is not safe.

If someone shot a gun in your direction, and the bullet whizzed by your head, within inches of your head, would you think, no prob, no harm done, it didn't hit me? Or would you be wanting that person to be prosecuted so that he would not do that again? (I don't expect an honest answer.)