So, to you, it's all about the sentencing?

What about the guy in Fresno that only got 4 years for killing a transgender?

Ever spent much time around jails or prisons?

I have.

You know what is one of the most common items that detention personell are responsible for despensing to inmates and prisoners?

Psychological medications.

What about people who get light sentences for murdering all sorts of people all over the country?

What about a certian black former football player who most people are convinced literally got away with murder?

It's called, "the defense did a good job, the prosecution apparenlty did not."


It's SUPPOSED to be difficult to prosecute somebody in our system. That protects ALL off us.

My mother was mentally ill. Though I was young at the time, but I think she took medication for that.

Heck, almost 30 years ago I visited a friend who was housed at a state mental hospital in the criminally insane wing. He told me that if someone got into a fight, the perp would be given Thorazine.

My mom has a severe mental illness. To the point that she'll see shit that isn't there if she goes off her medication.

Nearly all "mental illness" is actually rooted in biology. Chemical imbalances in the brain and such.

In my mom's case, it's her thyroid gland.

As for my mom, I think it was due to having her lost her son (who would have been my older brother) in illness. He died of renal failure (kidney).

Now, having said that, and on the other board, this happened in 1951. At that time, medical scientists were experimenting kidney transplants with animals. Sometime later that year in a Boston hospital, three urologists performed the world's first kidney transplant on a 10-year-old patient, and it worked. If my brother could have hung on a little more, he may still be alive today. I truly believe that.

Anyway, my mom's mom and my dad were usually at war over my mom's illness. It was pretty painful enough as it is.

I'm sorry your family went through so much, God bless you.

We are gaining more and more knowlege all the time about mental illness. I think the future looks bright in that regard.

Having been around the criminal justice system quite a bit, like I said, many people "in the system" might not be there, had they gotten proper help sooner.

Mental illness and substance abuse are the two biggies that seem to land people there.

Yeah, I've seen some truley evil people get put on trial and sent away. But more often than not, it's far more complicated than that.

Yet another reason I'm against "blanket" standards... like the ones "hate crime" legislation sets.

I hate to be a broken record, but, in my experience: Every case is as unique as the people involved.

Justice just simply has to be flexible and nimble enough to adjust, IMO>

Thanks, MyT. I guess we all have seen everything in our lives.

Maybe not everything... but I've seen plenty of funky stuff.

Some of it kind of hysterical... like the time I saw a defense attorney jump up and yell,

"Objection, your honor! My client is not on trial for having a small penis!"

The best stuff in life is crap that you could never make up... LOL!

I do not understand how hate-crime laws remove any flexibility.

Prosecutors still have the option of not pursuing such charges.

Judges have the option in their instructions to the jury of recommending a not guilty verdict even if a defendant is clearly guilty of the related violent crime.

Juries still have the option of finding a defendant not guilty if they believe the "hate" component of the crime has not been proven.

Whoever does the sentencing -- usually a judge -- still has the option of making the sentence the shortest legally available.

Where is the lack of flexibility?