Teen turns down plea deal for 25 years in prison, gets 65 years instead

My interest is not so much in what this teenager did. He was 15 when this happened. Is now 18 but by the law of the State he was in he is charged as an adult even though he was a child.
Here is the story

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...instead/ar-AAvxv94?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp

He was obviously the youngest being only 15, had no part in the murder and may well have been scared stiff as his lawyer said.

What concerns me is that by not accepting the offer, he is going to have to spend almost all of his life in prison. He chose to have his day in court. I hear many people speak about, particularly with black people, if they are arrested in the US they believe, even if they are innocent that they must accept the offer or as with this young man they will get a far worse outcome - even for a crime you committed as a child.

It seems to me that this boy is being used to let every one else know that it will indeed happen. Accept the deal or you will be brought down on hard. Given that this is the position many people are claiming that there is no longer 'due process' in the US and that that is particularly true if you are black.

Comments?

 

Smith smiled and laughed through the sentencing, said C.J. Robinson, chief assistant district attorney. Smith flashed a broad smile March 14 as he was led out of the courtroom shortly after the verdicts were announced.

“I don’t think Mr. Smith will be smiling long when he gets to prison,” Robinson said. “We
are very pleased with this sentence. Because the sentences are consecutive, it will be a long time before he comes up for even the possibility for parole, at least 20 to 25 years.”


Probably laughing after being found guilty of murder but not yet sentenced may not have been such a good idea.

This is particularly so since he was in Alabama, the state that sentenced someone to life in prison for spitting on a police officer.

 

Oh I did not understand it as that. I thought he was laughing thinking, yes I knew they would do this to me. He also did not commit any murder.

Yes, it does seem to be harder than some in their insistence of charging him as a adult although he was only 15 and in charging him of a murder when he had nothing to do with it but one of the people with him did commit the murder.

It seemed to fit it with what I am told which is that if you choose to go to court you will be given a much bigger sentence. That apparently is what people are told and why very few people apparently have a trial any more. With that his sentence seemed to be punishing him for going to court and that was what I thought he must be smiling for too.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...instead/ar-AAvxv94?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp

 

Ah yes.

The liberal inclination to absolve violent people and put them back on the streets to harm more innocent people.

He didn't shoot anyone! He just hung around with murderers and thieves and was there when it happened!

What did Smith do when the verdict was read?

Smith smiled and laughed through the sentencing, said C.J. Robinson, chief assistant district attorney. Smith flashed a broad smile March 14 as he was led out of the courtroom shortly after the verdicts were announced.

Yeah let's let him out of prison so he can laugh and smile the next time he kills someone.

 

The poster before you appeared to believe he had committed a murder. He had not. I am not interested in more far right propaganda. My only interest in this thread is a discussion whether due process has ended in the US as many people argue and that that is particularly used against Black people. I hear they can be told they will be brought to court for anything and are told that if they do not agree to a sentence they will get two or three times as much if they have their day in court - sometimes threatened with the death penalty. That was what drew me to this article. He would have got 25 years if he had agreed not to go to court. He chose to go to court. None of the charges had changed but instead of getting 25 years, he got 65. It looks to me that this may be a deliberate lesson to black people that if they try to go for 'due process' they will be hammered even more.

 

No, he did commit a murder.

He was present and involved with a group of people that committed a murder. It doesn't matter if he pulled the trigger or not.

It's not propaganda, it's the law. That's why he was convicted and sentenced.

Perhaps a better lesson to learn is not hang around with other murderers that shoot at people.

 

What's weird is being charged with murder in thr first place. The dead kid was shot by a cop ..... homicide, but not murder.

Now, I could see being charged with murder if this bunch had killed someone. They didn't. There was no 'murder'.

 

No salvation, no forgiveness.

No salvation, no forgiveness.

No salvation, no forgiveness.

 

This is how they make it murder. He was with the group that acted in a way which made the police kill the one of them who was coming at them with a gun

The guy Washington who was shot apparently ran at the policeman with a gun. Some of the others, but not Smith had been firing their guns earlier. This apparently is a law unique to Alabama. Still how does a charge which was 25 years on a deal become 65 if you have your day in court and could it be that this is a threat to others not to go to court and if that is so, has the US given up 'due process.'

 

No the law is not "unique" to Alabama.

It's the same reason a get away driver at a bank robbery gets charged. He didn't actually rob the bank, but he was in the group who did.

 

He was complicit in committing murder and his big boy crime got him big boy time. I certainly feel bad that he threw his life away, but I respect the jury's decision.

 

Here's the law that he was convicted under.

(a) A person commits the crime of murder if he or she does any of the following:

(1) With intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of that person or of another person.

(2) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, he or she recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself or herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.

(3) He or she commits or attempts to commit arson in the first degree, burglary in the first or second degree, escape in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, robbery in any degree, sodomy in the first degree, aggravated child abuse under Section 26-15-3.1 , or any other felony clearly dangerous to human life and, in the course of and in furtherance of the crime that he or she is committing or attempting to commit, or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant if there be any, causes the death of any person.

Still weird to me. 'Murder' was not committed, homicide was.

Here's something about the burglary:

Five people broke into two homes in Millbrook on Feb. 23, 2015. Smith was part of that group. Millbrook police officers responded to a call of a burglary in progress. One of the co-defendants began shooting at an officer as he entered the home. Testimony brought out that several of the co-defendants fired at the officer. The suspects left the home and ran into the backyard, still firing at the officer.

Now, given that, I could see attempted murder of the police officers for all the perps. Still don't get the murder charge since no one was murdered.

 

So does that mean that the one who died can be charged with murdering himself or even more bazarre, if the officer did not kill him but tried to, could the victim be charged of attempted murder of himself

 

Who was murdered?

 

First of all do the crime, do the time. Second, he is obviously not very intelligent. No one with half a brain pisses off the judge by laughing during a serious trial. I would bet that he received numerous warnings from his attorney telling him the same.

 

My guess is it would be the dead, who should also get life in prison for self murdering!!!!

"Montgomery was convicted of felony murder"

 

He is a minor, and shouldn't be punished as an adult. I'm sure the black community can raise the money, and bring it to a higher court.

 

He aided in the burglary, but did he aid in the shooting?

Or was the logic being applied that they were trying to lump this all together in one criminal offense?

 

This is not a UK story so its really nothing for you to worry about

 

Another article some people may be interested in:
http://www.legallyspeakingohio.com/...g-right-to-trial-state-of-ohio-v-malik-rahab/

http://communityvoices.post-gazette...-the-cautionary-instruction-the-trial-penalty

Another old thread about a similar case that happened:
Injustice: homeowner shoots unarmed burglars, burglars guilty of murder

 

I would bet if he had received numerous warning we would have heard. We read things dependant on our thinking. It appeared to me he was laughing because he knew that what he had been told before was true. That going to trial, particularly for a black man where he was, was not acceptable, so he was being stitched up.

However your belief that a judge would judge on his emotions rather than on the evidence provided itself does not speak well for justice in the USA.

 

Yes, I would agree with that but I hear it happens a lot in the US - or has this recently been changed?

This may not be so and ought not to have to be relied on for justice but I think the issue may be bigger than that. Why I put in this thread was to question the reality that he was offered 25 years on deal - which would still be an enormous amount to give a minor, but having chosen not to accept the deal he got a sentence of 65 years.

I have heard people, Chris Hedges for one who says that the justice system is not working in the US as almost all blacks do not have their day in court. Instead they are subject to the fact that police can tell them they are going to be charged with any crime they like. They then tell them that if they do not accept this they get a far longer sentence, sometimes even the death sentence. This has apparently led to a situation where they do not believe they have any rights and have to admit to the charges and agree to the plea whether they are guilty or not. That would mean you do not have proper due process in the US. Noticing this case I wondered if this could be an example to other black people to not try and have their to a trial or they will be destroyed.

Hedges sees this in a future fascist America as the perfect set up for imprisonment without trial. Indeed he points out it is already happening.

 

America has the best justice system money can buy.

 

That sounds like nationalistic propaganda. Not if you have imprisonment without trial. That was considered one of the most important parts of a fair justice system when it was created.

 

I wasn't bragging. It's a sad statement, actually.