Life Sentence For Marijuana Habitual Offender

It looks Louisana needs a major rewrite of its habitual offender after I saw this http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/05/fourth_marijuana_conviction_ge.html">article

"He didn't fare too well after moving to St. Tammany Parish, however. A single such conviction on the north shore landed the 35-year-old in prison for the rest of his life.

State Judge Raymond S. Childress punished Hood under Louisiana's repeat-offender law in his courtroom in Covington on Thursday. A jury on Feb. 15 found the defendant guilty of attempting to possess and distribute marijuana at his Slidell home, court records show.

Hood moved from eastern New Orleans to the Slidell area after he admitted to separate charges of distribution of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana on Dec. 18, 2009, in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He received a suspended five-year prison sentence and five years' of probation for each -- which was precisely the same penalty he got in that court after pleading guilty to possessing and intending to distribute marijuana on Feb. 22, 2005.

When Hood switched homes, he also requested a new probation officer based in St. Tammany. Authorities granted the wish, and the officer, Dustin Munlin, drove to Hood's place for a routine visit on Sept. 27, 2010.

Sinply, the state needs to rewrite its habitual offender laws to prevent judges from imposing the subject sentence upon nonviolent offender. A better solution would to either (i) double the amount of time that the judge can provide on the sentence or (ii) place an additional term of years on top of the regular sentence. A sentence of 15 years would be far more effective than a life sentence in the subject case.

If you need proof I'll direct you to Midnight Express.

this egregious offender: Unless Louisiana has money running out the ga-zoo, one would think a better way could be found to allocate its resources! :patriot:

my shiny metal ass. The Chinese wouldn't even do this.

LEGALIZE IT!

...the Chinese have a 1 strike and you get a bullet in the back of the head policy.


There certainly are shitty and ignorant aspects to the US Justice System - but to compare in any way to China is myopic.



Agree with Legalize it.

We are a bunch of cowed scaredycats who will let thousands of unoffending people go to prison rather than stand up to the fascists in our state and national governments.

eastern NOLA = heavily African American; Slidell and much of St. Tammany Parish = Klan country: literally! I and fifty or so of my close friends went there to counterdemo a planned Klan march in the early '90s; when they learned of our presence, they ran to nearby Pearl River with their tails between their legs.). The parish is also home to white supremacist hero David Dukkke, when he isn't schmoozing with other racists in Ukraine or wherever.

I can't find a picture of the luckless Mr. Hood, but I'm kind of drawing one in my mind, if you recieve my drift...

we have judges with no brains. I feel soooo much safer knowing we lock up pot users. Just how much more ridiculous can this society get, wait, I don't even want to know.

and find any penalty for its simple use and possession (and possibly sale) to be absurd, just change the "crime" in the above story, and one thing becomes clear.

If this individual had gotten two suspended sentences in a row for, say, burglary, it would have sent a message to him that the state was not terribly serious about his committing the crime a third time. Perhaps six months in the slammer might have convinced this person that he just wasn't going to be allowed to do something the state has told him he shouldn't do.

Again, I feel that this is a miscarriage of justice, simply because it's marijuana involved, but I can stand behind the principle of putting away habitual offenders for real crimes.