{"id":8440,"date":"2023-01-26T14:11:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8440"},"modified":"2023-01-27T10:05:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T18:05:57","slug":"virginia-law-to-punish-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8440","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Law to Punish Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

On November 14, 1996 Alan Peterson, a Southern California contractor, was leaving a Jack in the Box with his lunch when 16-year-old gang member Lawrence Cottle shot him in the chest while attempting to carjack his pickup.\u00a0 A short time later Peterson died in the hospital.\u00a0 The next day Cottle robbed a man at gunpoint,\u00a0 then held his gun to the head of a little girl while stealing her mother’s purse.\u00a0 Cottle ended his crime spree with an armed carjacking before crashing into a police car while attempting to flee.\u00a0 For these crimes Cottle was sentenced to life without parole (LWOP).\u00a0 In May of last year, Alan Peterson’s daughter learned that her father’s murderer was eligible for release on parole and would go before the parole board in June.\u00a0 She was devastated to learn that California has passed a law (SB 394) making murderers under 18 sentenced to LWOP eligible for parole after serving 25 years.\u00a0 Dozens of other families have gone through the same trauma of learning that the murderers of their loved ones have been set free under this law.\u00a0\u00a0 A committee of the Virginia Senate has just passed out a bill (SB 842) that would make all<\/em> murderers and all violent criminals eligible for release after serving 15 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Attorney Hans Bader writes<\/a> in Liberty Unyielding; “Supporters of the bill argue that \u201ceveryone deserves a second chance.\u201d But to critics, the bill goes beyond giving offenders a second chance, because it gives even the most persistent reoffenders the opportunity to seek release \u2014 people who already had and squandered a \u201csecond chance.\u201d As an objector noted, \u201cmost inmates doing more than 15 years have already had their second, third, fourth, and fifth chances \u2014 the typical released state prison inmate has five prior convictions, according to Rafael Mangual, who studies the criminal-justice system at the Manhattan Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once given a second chance, an offender can go on to kill or harm many people. At the age of 19, while on parole, Kenneth McDuff shot and killed two boys, then killed a girl after raping her and torturing her with burns and a broomstick. After being paroled years later at the age of 43, he murdered additional women \u2014 as many as 15 women in several states.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to setting potentially dangerous criminals free, the law is a slap in the face to the victims and their families, who thought that they could rely on the state to uphold the law and keep the criminals that ruined their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n

Bader notes that “Supporters of second-look laws have pointed to how neighboring jurisdictions like Maryland allow judges to revisit some sentences. But Virginia may not want to become more like Maryland, which can be quite soft on crime. Maryland has a violent crime rate nearly twice Virginia\u2019s, even though the two states are demographically similar, and Maryland is even more prosperous than Virginia.<\/p>\n

Observers tend to attribute the higher crime in Maryland to its soft-on-crime policies \u2014 such as the the fact that \u201cVirginia has stricter laws on the books\u201d and \u201charsh sentences,\u201d which are \u201ca huge deterrent\u201d to crime. \u201cCriminals know if you commit crime in Virginia you might get whacked, while in Maryland, you might just get slapped on the wrist.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lobbyist for the Second Look bill has predicted it would release so many inmates that it would empty two Virginia prisons, under a conservative estimate.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Places like California and Maryland which enacted these laws, have suffered significant increases in violent crime.\u00a0 Apparently some members of the Virginia Legislature want to create the same environment in their state.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 14, 1996 Alan Peterson, a Southern California contractor, was leaving a Jack in the Box with his lunch when 16-year-old gang member Lawrence Cottle shot him in the chest while attempting to carjack his pickup.\u00a0 A short time later Peterson died in the hospital.\u00a0 The next day Cottle robbed a man at gunpoint,\u00a0 then held his gun to the head of a little girl while stealing her mother’s purse.\u00a0 Cottle ended his crime spree with an armed carjacking before crashing into a police car while attempting to flee.\u00a0 For these crimes Cottle was sentenced to life without parole (LWOP).\u00a0 In May of last year, Alan Peterson’s daughter learned that her father’s murderer was eligible for release on parole and would go before the parole board in June.\u00a0 She was devastated to learn that California has passed a law (SB 394) making murderers under 18 sentenced to LWOP eligible for parole after serving 25 years.\u00a0 Dozens of other families have gone through the same trauma of learning that the murderers of their loved ones have been set free under this law.\u00a0\u00a0 A committee of the Virginia Senate has just passed out a bill (SB 842) that would make all murderers and all violent criminals eligible for release after serving 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\nVirginia Law to Punish Victims - 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