<story><title>A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early</title><url>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/07/unfreed</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>waterfowl</author><text>The insanity of the charges&amp;#x2F;sentencing reminds me of a passage from &lt;i&gt;The Hot House&lt;/i&gt;(which is excellent, Pete Earley somehow got permission to go mingle with prisoners at USP Leavenworth for a year and write about it).&lt;p&gt;A Bank Robber, 45&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;#x27;They originally charged me with murder, kidnapping, and bank robbery, but I&amp;#x27;m really just a bank robber with really bad luck. You see, my buddy and me were robbing this bank, and when we come outside there is a cop waiting across the street and he starts shooting. He shoots my buddy, but I don&amp;#x27;t know he&amp;#x27;s dead so I pull him into the car and drive away. When they bust me, they charge me with murder, kidnapping, and the robbery.&lt;p&gt;I ask my attorney, &amp;quot;How the hell can they do that? All I did was rob a bank&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;He says the law says if you are committing a felony and someone dies, a bank teller has a heart attack or something, you can be charged with murder. He tells me they charged me with murder because my buddy got killed.&lt;p&gt;He says the law says when I pulled my buddy into the car and drove off, I kidnapped him because I was taking a body from the scene of a crime. That&amp;#x27;s how they got me for kidnapping.&lt;p&gt;He says the law says that I can be charged with all three even though I didn&amp;#x27;t kill nobody and I didn&amp;#x27;t kidnap nobody.&lt;p&gt;I say the law sucks.&amp;#x27;&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>downandout</author><text>If you think this sentence was unjust, there is another Colorado prisoner named Michael Dipentino. He is currently serving a 305 year sentence. What was his heinous crime? According to the Denver DA [1] he created phony checks to buy $200,000 worth of postage stamps, that he later pawned or resold. He was facing a &lt;i&gt;minimum&lt;/i&gt; of 96 years after his conviction, but the judge decided to give him 305 years.&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;justice&amp;quot; system is completely out of control.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.denverda.org&amp;#x2F;News_Release&amp;#x2F;Releases&amp;#x2F;2006%20Release&amp;#x2F;Dipentino%20guilty.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.denverda.org&amp;#x2F;News_Release&amp;#x2F;Releases&amp;#x2F;2006%20Release...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early</title><url>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/07/unfreed</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>waterfowl</author><text>The insanity of the charges&amp;#x2F;sentencing reminds me of a passage from &lt;i&gt;The Hot House&lt;/i&gt;(which is excellent, Pete Earley somehow got permission to go mingle with prisoners at USP Leavenworth for a year and write about it).&lt;p&gt;A Bank Robber, 45&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;#x27;They originally charged me with murder, kidnapping, and bank robbery, but I&amp;#x27;m really just a bank robber with really bad luck. You see, my buddy and me were robbing this bank, and when we come outside there is a cop waiting across the street and he starts shooting. He shoots my buddy, but I don&amp;#x27;t know he&amp;#x27;s dead so I pull him into the car and drive away. When they bust me, they charge me with murder, kidnapping, and the robbery.&lt;p&gt;I ask my attorney, &amp;quot;How the hell can they do that? All I did was rob a bank&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;He says the law says if you are committing a felony and someone dies, a bank teller has a heart attack or something, you can be charged with murder. He tells me they charged me with murder because my buddy got killed.&lt;p&gt;He says the law says when I pulled my buddy into the car and drove off, I kidnapped him because I was taking a body from the scene of a crime. That&amp;#x27;s how they got me for kidnapping.&lt;p&gt;He says the law says that I can be charged with all three even though I didn&amp;#x27;t kill nobody and I didn&amp;#x27;t kidnap nobody.&lt;p&gt;I say the law sucks.&amp;#x27;&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>psychometry</author><text>The deal you get from prosecutors is only as good as your lawyer and good lawyers cost money. This is what happens when the criminal justice system is run by politicking judges and prosecutors elected by a public whose understanding of punitive systems doesn&amp;#x27;t get any more nuanced than &amp;quot;let&amp;#x27;s be hard on crime!&amp;quot;</text></comment>