A lot of drug crimes have mandatory minimums, 3 strikes law, and so forth attached to them. I remember a 60 Minutes or 20/20 on the matter, and judge after judge told stories about how they had no authority TO be lenient in these cases and it broke their hearts to put non-violent kids away for 20 years, etc. Weird that there would be no 3 strikes laws for violent offenders. As I read down that article, I kept waiting to get to the murder, but it was just arrest after arrest and trial after trial with slaps on the wrist. Didn't get the impression his family was loaded or anything, either.
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