Gang Enhancement Laws (for or against?)

[bufetadanacara]

More laws and punishments that are focused on poor inner city minority kids? I wish I was surprised by this.

Why is it that no one is proposing that we give more jail time to guys that steal millions from investors?

Our idea of justice needs work. A kid steals a $10k car and he's getting 20 years or whatever. Guy steals $50 million from retirement funds and he gets 10 years in a white collar prison. Makes sense.

Why can't we just shoot them both?

 

[Shoemaker]

I suppose I only oppose it for the same reason I oppose having the same penalties for murder & rape. And it's not because I don't think rape is a heinous crime. It's about motivation. If a person decides to rape someone else, and the punishments were the same (or even close), where is the incentive to leave the victim alive?

Same principal in this case; if a home invasion carries a potential life sentence (and to a teenager, 15 years on top of the original sentence might as well be a lifetime) and that their chances of getting away with the crime increase if they murder the witnesses, there's little motivation to leave the witnesses alive.

I think the unintended consequences of this will outweigh the intent.

 

[Like A Bas]

Aren't we already tough enough on gang crime sentencing?

 

[djacobox372]

No they don't.

The legislators decide what's criminal and they decide what the punishment is. A criminal law is incomplete if it doesn't address the state's response to a crime.

The judiciary only oversees the handling of the case to ensure due process and resolve disputes as to the meaning of the legislators laws.

There's no separation of powers issue since the power has always belonged to the legislative branch.

The Legislation can provide guidelines, but that's all they are. The judicial branch can choose to follow them or not.

Here's the text of the most recent decision regarding this matter:

"Judges "must consult" the guidelines and "take them into account" in imposing sentences. But at the end of the day the guidelines will be advisory only, with sentences to be reviewed on appeal for "reasonableness." "