I am glad that all of the criminals are able to get their sentences reduced, it makes me as a tax paying citizen feel safer....Please let them all move into the neighborhoods of the defendants of this policy.....
ATLANTA --- A divided Georgia Supreme Court over-turned a system of three-judge panels that has reduced prison sentences for hundreds of inmates, but stopped short of reinstating the original prison terms.
The court's 4-3 ruling on Monday said reversing sentences that have already been reduced by the panels would amount to "double jeopardy," a blow to prosecutors who have long argued that the original prison terms should remain intact.
"I'm absolutely disappointed in this ruling," said J. Brown Moseley, a former district attorney in southwest Georgia who brought the case. "I think they've lost sight of what the laws are made for."
Defense attorneys who defended the panels were delighted with the ruling.
"It's a victory for us," said Bruce Edenfield, an attorney who argued that the panels were both legal and legitimate. "I feel vindicated."
To defense attorneys, the panels provided a way to appeal harsh or unjustified sentences and a way to foster more uniformity across Georgia in criminal sentencing.
But prosecutors argue the panels have been abused by defendants eager to skirt a judge's decision and they have been looking for ways to get rid of them since they were created more than three decades ago.
The majority opinion, written by Justice George Carley, said once a defendant has already begun to serve a sentence that was shortened by the panels, "the constitutional principle of double jeopardy precludes an increase in punishment."
In dissent, Justice Robert Benham wrote the state constitution grants lawmakers the authority to create the panels.
Comments
I am glad that all of the criminals are able to get their sentences reduced, it makes me as a tax paying citizen feel safer....Please let them all move into the neighborhoods of the defendants of this policy.....
Once again we move closer to the "never take responsibility for your actions" society. Whatever happened to standing up and taking your punishment. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time? that kinda stuff. Now it seems criminals have rights and are victims and the real victims know no justice. I tell ya maybe old William was right.
This decision only favors the convicted and their lawyers. Thanks supreme court.
Why anyone is surprised with this decision is beyond me...The victim has increasingly had to take second place when it comes to the rights of humanity....Our laws are in place to protect the criminal at all costs no matter the cost to the victim or victim's families. I would like to say thanks to all the Ga. Supremes who voted for this appalling miscarriage of justice... Why not just open the prisons ever so often and dump the criminal element back onto the streets kinda like Castro opened up his prisons and dumped the scourge of their society on us? It certainly would do much to alleviate the overcrowding issues...On a higher note maybe they will all move into your neighborhoods...:-)
How far are we from a time where criminals will be treated to Vigilante Justice...then the court will not be able to seat a jury who will convict the Viliantes? How long of the court NOT doing its job until we see a break down in the Law System
yeah, thanks for nuthin.
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