Posted on 05/10/2007 8:40:59 AM PDT by flutters
AKRON, Ohio (AP) A judge cried as the family of a dead taxicab driver asked that his killer spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance for parole, but the judge refused, saying state law required her to impose less than the maximum.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer cried Wednesday while listening to statements by relatives of the victim, Warren J. Miller, 37, of Akron. He was shot in the back of his head in his taxicab by Darnail Carlisle, 18, of Cleveland, on the day after Thanksgiving.
The judge said the defendant's difficult childhood meant she was required by law to give him life with a chance at parole in 36 years.
Carlisle's lawyers highlighted social-services reports that said he had bounced between foster homes and had been physically and sexually abused as a child.
Miller's mother, Gayle, was unmoved. There are people who have had harder lives and didn't kill no one, she said after the sentencing.
No, it means that she was required by law to give his childhood consideration in her sentencing.
She could still have imposed any sentence permitted by the statute.
Women, just doing the jobs men won’t do.
Another Clintoon appointee?
Whaaa, I once had a hang nail. Can I use that on my next ticket?
GUILTY.
er, waitaminnit...
Background story from the Philadelphia Inquirer, 2001:
Sunday, August 05, 2001
‘Cookies’ a sweet deal for mentally ill
By Charley Gillespie
The Associated Press
AKRON Incentives such as ballgame tickets or a free manicure are helping the state’s first Mental Health Court keep people out of jail.
Ohio and seven other states are testing a theory that token rewards and positive reinforcement can change mentally ill offenders’ behavior and keep them taking their medicine.
The court opened in January and has allowed 54 offenders to avoid or leave jail. Its goal is to serve 100 people by year’s end.
We have open beds in the mental health units in the Summit County Jail for the first time since the jail opened in 1989, said Akron Municipal Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer, who oversees the Mental Health Court. We also have reduced the number of people committed to state mental institutions.
In Mental Health Court, defendants plead no contest to misdemeanor charges and enter a two-year treatment program. They are monitored by a probation officer and regularly appear before Judge Stormer.
Charges are dropped with successful completion of the program.
In Ohio, the counties around Columbus and Cincinnati are considering Mental Health Courts, the judge said. In Butler County, a Substance Abusing Mentally Ill program involves putting mentally ill drug court offenders into a special program similar to a mental health court.
Most courts especially in rural areas don’t have a strong mental health system in their community to help offenders, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Stratton said. Without such support, people with mental illnesses often get arrested for minor crimes, she said.
Judge Stormer said she pushed for the specialized court because most mentally ill would take their medications if urged to do so.
Tammy Lucas, 40, of Akron said she knew she had a mental illness when she was 13 and eventually was diagnosed as manic depressive. She says she became addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine while trying to deal with her symptoms.
Ms. Lucas said she spent half of 1999 in a coma after taking 28 sleeping pills. Last December, she again attempted suicide.
Before her last suicide attempt, Ms. Lucas was arrested on drug possession and solicitation charges. When she went to court in April, Judge Stormer invited her into the program.
Ms. Lucas says Judge Stormer treats her more like a friend than a criminal, as long as she keeps taking her medicine and attending group therapy sessions.
Ms. Lucas says the difference between Ohio’s program and others is that case managers work with her and the defendants.
Judge Stormer offers many different incentives, or cookies, to keep offenders inspired. A defendant recently was promised a free manicure to keep taking medication and meet with her case worker.
It costs $10 to get someone a gift certificate to get her nails done. So if that is really meaningful and really motivating for her, we get her one, Judge Stormer said.
You get them tickets to go to the movies or take everybody to a baseball game. It’s really not what the item is that makes a difference ... it is the recognition and public approval.
Those who miss meetings or don’t take their medicine face sanctions including community service, house arrest, time in a halfway house or even jail.
Not all make it through the program.
A program member charged with unruly conduct and criminal trespassing was sent to prison after pushing a police officer.
I don’t excuse his behavior, but I am not sure we couldn’t have helped him prevent some of that behavior, the judge said.
Judge Stormer says most people in the program likely won’t commit another crime partly because of the commitment of the court’s case managers.
They are taking them to appointments. If they need to be seen every day, they are seen every day, she said.
real justice would be for the perp to have a 158 grain lead aspirin (to releave the pain) inserted in the back of his head at around 1100feet per second.
that would be justice....
A judge cried....
&&\
Another pot head judge?
I agree wholeheartedly with what the murdered man’s mother said.
When did The President of The United States start appointing County Common Pleas Judges?
Lighten up, Francis....it was a botched joke!
No they won't. Most meds have side effects patients do not want to deal with and will choose alcohol and other drugs over their prescribed meds. The prescribed meds also makes the patient feel normal and thus enforcing in their minds they really do not need the meds.
I was a juror in a capital murder case ten years ago. Convicting the defendant was a slam dunk. (He kidnapped and executed a young man over a dispute regarding a $20 necklace.)
After the conviction, the defense attorney presented the jury with a small list of mitigating factors which he hoped would save his client from a death sentence. The most appalling mitigating factor is right up there with a hang nail: his client’s parents couldn’t afford to buy him a winter coat.
Even more appalling is that most of the jurors bought into it and the scumbag was given a life sentence.
You are correct - the law says she CAN take it into consideration. It is this limp-willed judge who has made law of her own...
...Carlisle’s lawyers highlighted social-services reports that said he had bounced between foster homes and had been physically and sexually abused as a child....So lets see, because he was abused that equals blowing a cabbies head off?...What is this?, new math or radical socialism?
Women suck, and lots of times I’m ashamed to be one.
She must feal real comfy about her decision in a radical leftist sort of way....
Exactly. I can see you too must have worked with the mentally ill. Obviously, the judge has not.
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