Federal Judge Blasts Mandatory Minimum Sentences

New York Law Journal via Yahoo News ^ | 1/20/06 | John Caher

[chet_in_ny]

Forced to impose a sentence he deemed unjust, a Northern District of New York judge took sharp aim last week at a federal statute that required him to impose a life-without-parole term on a 32-year-old "relatively small-time drug dealer" with an IQ of 72.

Judge David N. Hurd said child rapists and murderers will go free on parole while Justin D. Powell languishes in prison for life, largely because the defendant was convicted of drug crimes twice during his teenage years, more than a decade before the instant offense. Because of those prior convictions, the sole sentencing option was life, Hurd said.

"The increment of harm in this case bears no rational relationship to the increment of punishment that I must impose," Hurd said at a sentencing proceeding last week in Utica, N.Y. "This is what occurs when Congress sets [a] mandatory minimum sentence which distorts the entire judicial process... . As a result, I am obligated to and will now impose this unfair and, more important, unjust sentence."

[chet_in_ny]

The judge seems to have an valid point here- although I don't know all the facts of this defendant's situation. Problems are bound to arise with arbitrary mandatory items and the law. Unfortunately, it is neccessary when lib judges would let everyone off the hook without the mandatory guidelines.

[DJ MacWoW]

I'd need more info but it said he had drug convictions in his teens and he's now 32 and has a 3rd one. Sounds like a life-long problem.

[thoughtomator]

There wouldn't be mandatory minimums if judges didn't take it upon themselves to make a mockery of law in imposing absurdly light sentences. On the other hand, mandatory minimums are in place for all the wrong crimes - they should be there for things like murder and sex offenses.

[Ninian Dryhope]

If the judge does not like the law, he can resign and run for Congress and then change the law. Otherwise, he should shut his stupid pie hole and do the job he is paid to do.

[Ninian Dryhope]

He had a pretty good run for a guy with only a 72 IQ. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[ApplegateRanch]

The judge is out of line. It is his job to administer the law, not write it. If he doesn't agree with the law, then he should climb down off his sinecured Bench, run for Congress, and change it.

Barring that, write a letter to his Congressman.

Well, those two chestnuts are basically what I always get told, when I complain I don't like a law.

[DManA]

The Judges opinion is irrelevant. If he want the law changed he should resign and run for the legislature. Until then, shut up and administer the law.

[Ostlandr]

Typical New York justice. Much as I'm a law-and-order man, the Rockefeller drug laws are just plain stupid. Selling weed on a city streetcorner is literally worse than murder.
New York just upped the ante for sex offender registry, too.
Now, a "Level 1" sex offender is on the books for twenty years instead of ten. IIRC a level one sex offense is along the lines of streaking, public urination or stealing a kiss.
Level 2 (sexual assault) went from twenty years to thirty, and level 3 (forcible rape, etc.) is still lifetime registry- they couldn't figure out how to raise it.
Typical liberal overreaction- pass new, "tougher" laws instead of actually enforcing the perfectly good laws already on the books. Duuuh. . .

[DJ MacWoW]

I wonder if it's been known for awhile that he deals on a small scale and because of his disability it's been ignored until now. I hope not.

[Leisler]

Who cares? Like, we're not going to find a cure for cancer? Or, somewhere a little league is missing a coach? We got plenty of concrete and starchy farm products. Lock'm up.

[Leisler]

Who cares? Like, we're not going to find a cure for cancer? Or, somewhere a little league is missing a coach? We got plenty of concrete and starchy farm products. Lock'm up.

[BOBWADE]

Judge David N. Hurd

David N. Hurd is a United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York. At the time of his appointment in 1999, he was a United States Magistrate Judge in that District.

Judge Hurd earned his B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1959 and his J.D. degree cum laude from Syracuse University in 1963.

From 1963 until 1966 he was an associate with the firms of Coughlin, Dermody, Ingalls & Guy; Abelove & Myers; and Ferris, Kehoe, Tenney & Murnane. He served as a part-time Oneida County Assistant District Attorney from 1966 until 1967, when he joined the law firm of O’Shea, Griffin, Jones & McLaughlin as an associate, becoming a partner in the firm of O’Shea, Griffin, McDonald, Hurd & Stevens in Rome, N.Y. in 1970 and remaining as such until becoming a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of New York in 1991.

Judge Hurd was a member of the College Council of the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome from 1977 until 1994, serving as its Chair from 1979 until 1994. .

He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Rome Bar Association, Oneida County Bar Association, Albany County Bar Association, and New York State Bar Association.

[chet_in_ny]

The worst part for this guy was he was originally sentenced for 20 years. His attorney appealed and the prosecutors cross-appealed- resulting in the life sentence.

[chet_in_ny]

1999 appointment= Clinton

[stinkerpot65]

Drug dealers should be executed.

[lowbridge]

Judge David N. Hurd said child rapists and murderers will go free on parole

Not true. I know of one child rapist who will be serving a whole 60 days.

[BOBWADE]

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1045754123974 New York State Judicial Conduct Rules Struck Daniel Wise and Tom Perrotta New York Law Journal 02-21-2003 A U.S. judge in Albany, N.Y., on Thursday delivered a body blow to the New York State Judicial Conduct Commission's power to regulate the political activities of judges. Judge David N. Hurd, ruling in a challenge brought by Albany Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Spargo, struck all specific prohibitions on judicial activity contained in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct as a prior restraint on protected First Amendment activities. Perhaps even more significantly, Hurd found unconstitutionally vague broad provisions of the code lodged against Spargo for failing to maintain "high standards of conduct," and requiring the judge to promote "public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary." Robert H. Tembeckjian, the deputy administrator of the conduct commission, said the decision will be appealed. He added that the commission is in the process of determining how many cases are directly affected by the invalidation of rules proscribing political activities by judges and candidates for judicial office. Tembeckjian added that virtually every case brought by the commission raises claims under the broad rubrics of "high standards" and "public confidence," which were also struck by Judge Hurd. But, aside from political activity cases, Tembeckjian said, most of those cases can proceed based on other code sections, which are usually alleged in tandem with the broader provisions. Justice Spargo's lawyer, David F. Kunz, hailed the decision as freeing judges "to publicly express opinions on legal and political issues" so that "no longer will voters simply select candidates by party affiliation." Spargo, who was a well-known election lawyer before being elected a part-time town justice in 2000, was accused by the commission of engaging in a wide range of proscribed political activities -- such as handing out free cider and doughnuts at a campaign event -- in connection with both his 2000 Town Justice campaign and his successful campaign the next year for Albany Supreme Court. Last October, Spargo sued to block the commission from starting a hearing into the charges, which had been scheduled for Oct. 21. Thursday, Judge Hurd permanently enjoined the commission from moving forward with the hearing in all respects except for one that did not implicate any of the code provisions he found unconstitutional. Pending Hurd's ruling, the commission had been temporarily barred from proceeding with the hearing. The one charge that the ruling permits to proceed accuses Justice Spargo of presiding over criminal cases while he was Berne Town justice without disclosing to the defense that he had handled election-related legal work for the Albany County district attorney-elect and was owed $10,000. While Hurd struck allegations relating to the broad provision contained in code sections 100.1 and 100.2, he allowed the failure-to-disclose charge to proceed based upon other provisions that Spargo did not challenge as unconstitutional. Hurd's ruling, however, bars the commission from moving to sanction Spargo for a wide range of alleged improper activities including: • Participating in what the commission described as a "loud and obstructive demonstration" in Florida "with the aim of disrupting the recount" during the tense days while the outcome of the Bush-Gore 2000 presidential contest hung in the balance. • Buying drinks, doughnuts, pizzas, coffee and gasoline for potential voters while campaigning for Berne Town justice. • Authorizing his supreme court campaign committee to pay $5,000 in political consulting fees each to a judicial nominating convention delegate from Democratic and Independence parties. (Spargo won the uncontested election with cross-endorsements.) The code provisions regulating political activities that were struck by Hurd bar judges from participating in campaigns other than their own, attending political gatherings, endorsing or opposing other candidates, and attending political gatherings (Code § 100.5). NO COMPELLING INTEREST Judge Hurd struck those provisions after finding that the state had failed to articulate a compelling reason to uphold a prior restraint on speech. Essentially, Hurd reasoned that once the state required judges to enter the political process to win their seats on the bench, it could not turn around and bar them from other types of political activities. While preserving the "independence of the judiciary" is no doubt a compelling state interest, he wrote in Spargo v. New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, 1:02-1320, that end is not furthered by barring judges from association "with a larger entity such as a political party." "Independence," he wrote, "means being outside the control or influence of another." But, he reasoned, if involvement in political activity compromises a judge's independence, then running for office once would not impede "the making of independent judgments any less than current participation in political activity might." Participation in political activity, he analogized, is really no different from being friendly with a neighbor who ends up involved in litigation that is assigned to the judge. In both instances, Hurd reasoned, the judges should recuse themselves if their independence would be questioned. Justice Spargo was represented by Kunz and George J. Szary of DeGraff, Foy, Holt-Harris & Kunz. The conduct commission was represented by Assistant Attorneys General Patrick MaCrae and Senta Suida.

[Ostlandr]

Yeah. A guy named Jack Carroll up in Renssaler County is sitting in jail for statutory rape. His original conviction was thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct. This is the rule rather than the exception with Renssaler County DA Patricia DeAngelis, and she has been cited for the same on numerous occasions.
Before the retrial, he was offered a deal: plead to a lesser offense (of which he was not guilty) or stand trial again on the original offense (of which he was also not guilty.) He refused, preferring to clear his good name.
Ms. DeAngelis pulled the same shenanigans during the retrial, got away with it, and now Jack Carroll is sitting in jail doing ten-to-twenty for a crime he didn't commit.
Carl Strock, the excellent columnist for the Schenectady Daily Gazette, chronicled all the abuses- not that it did any good.

[chet_in_ny]

The article speaks to a Federal judge in NY- not state judges like the article you posted. Speaking of NY state judges and the article you posted, I always thought it wrong for NY state judge seats to be elected positions.

[BOBWADE]

Yep. Kind of looks like Ness Lessman don't you think?