https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/us/lo...rnd/index.html
Exhibit 2827726 of the absurdity of the American justice system, the idiocy of zero tolerance policies, of 3 strike rules and the absence of social services or administrative punishments.
Yes. The dude has a history of mostly petty theft. But even if the harshness of the sentence doesn't outrage you, it is also financially nonsensical.Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 on one count of attempted simple burglary. In his appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Louisiana in 2018, his attorney, Peggy Sullivan, wrote that Bryant "contends that his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive."
Last week, though, the state Supreme Court disagreed -- with five justices choosing to uphold the life sentence.
The lone dissenter in the decision was Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who wrote that "the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed."
Johnson is the only female and Black person on the court. The rest of the justices are White men.
The sentence is sanctioned under the habitual offender law, Johnson noted in her dissent, meaning that Bryant's previous criminal history supports the sentence.
The man belongs in an institution, with his family, in a care home or whatever.Bryant was convicted in 1979 for attempted armed robbery, in 1987 for possession of stolen things, attempted forgery of a check worth $150 in 1989 and for simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling in 1992, all before his 1997 arrest for the failed attempt at stealing the hedge clippers.
But Johnson also mentioned the cost associated with Bryant's sentence, writing that in his 23 years in prison, he has cost Louisiana taxpayers over $500,000.
"If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers," she wrote.
If we weigh the nature of the crimes committed, the damages involved and the amount of time this man spent in jail, the sheer ridiculousness of the situation becomes self evident.