Arkansas School Shooter To Go Free

CBS /AP | August 11, 2005

[Leyva]

"Mitchell Johnson, one of the two boys convicted of what was at the time the worst school shooting on record, gets to walk away Thursday scot-free...."

[Leyva]

What the hell? Where's the outrage? This SOB should be in prison for life.

[af_vet_1981]

Our criminal justice system lawyers and judges working harder to put your family at risk ...

[NY Attitude]

Is he a relative of "Slick Willie"?

[DoughtyOne]

Paint lips on that pig, and he could run for president on the left.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

OK.

You get your "Welcome To FR".

[Graybeard58]

Where is a lnk?

[vrwinger]

Granted, he should be spending decades in jail, if not executed, but 7 years incarcerated is not "scot-free" IMHO...

[Leyva]

I made a mistake and posted the story twice. The link accompanies the first post. Sorry.

[Leyva]

I'm not the one who characterized his punishment as 'scot-free.' Your beef is with the folks over at the Associated Press and CBS News, who, as you know, are not always known for their meticulous reporting.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Ummmmmm...

This IS the first post.....


Hmmmmmm.......

[DBrow]

When he was convicted, the law was that juveniles go free when they turn 18. The Feds stepped in and charged him with some weapons violations, extending his stay to when he was 21. The law has since been changed.

It may seem outrageous and it is to me, but the arrangement is basically a contract. I expect governments to honor contracts that they enter into, and not just make up new rules as expediency dictates*. The changes to the laws were done legislatively by having elected officials write the changes, openly debate them, and vote them in for the governor's signature. But we do not pass retroactive laws (with the notable exception of Clinton's tax increases) because that first sentence is a contract between the convict and the state.

I'm pretty sure that when they came up with the juvenile laws, they were anticipating car theft, maybe knocking over a gas station. Certainly not plotting for months, lying in wait in camo, diversionary tactics to move victims to your target zone, then killing them with a 30-30 scoped lever action.

*Stalin had Beria simply reconvict zeks leaving the gulag because he needed more slave workers, especially in their nuclear efforts. He'd let them go when their sentences were up, then just reconvict them of the same crimes by signing a paper, and collecting the zeks back to the work camps under a new sentence.

[Graybeard58]

Leyva is a zotted troll.

Who wudda thunk it?

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Somehow, I just knew it

[Blood of Tyrants]

Because he could not be tried as an adult, they can only keep him so long. It will not be 2 years before he has murdered again.

[taxesareforever]

http://crime.about.com/b/a/192736.htm

[King Prout]

that's the law, as it was at the time of commission and conviction.

we must simply deal with it.

we cannot scream for additional penalties - no ex-post-facto laws, remember?

[King Prout]

oh, you rode the lightning... how sad.

heyyy, y'all - get a load of the troll who stopped in, attemptng to drum up support for ex-post-facto penalties among FReepers.

[Jackknife]

Link, please.

[Jet Jaguar]

LOL! He got zotted twice! That must sting.

[King Prout]

only for a few nanoseconds... then, it becomes burning agony