Five years is not enough

[sheshe2]

Link to tweet

[GemDigger]

1. Hell no, it's not nearly enough. nt

[brer cat]

2. He used to be a neighbor,

and he is an a$$. The fact that his mother turned him in is very telling. No matter what his sentence is, he will be a menace to society when he gets out.

[sheshe2]

3. Geez.

I remember you mentioning him, didn't remember the name, brer.

[spanone]

4. Gitmo? Where the other terrorists are?

[70sEraVet]

11. And water-boarded every day

I think his Cheetos Messiah thought water-boarding was a great idea.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. He should get 20 years

Oh and fuck him worthless trash.

[Grins]

46. Why?? He's not black.

Yes. Sarcasm.

[stillcool]

6. Another fine example of the injustice

in our justice system. It's appalling.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. He told you his intent

Believe him the first time.

[paleotn]

8. 20 is more like it. No opportunity for parole.

And his time should be spent at ADX Florence with the rest of the terrorists.

[NBachers]

9. I've seen too many political assassinations of Democrats in my lifetime. Put him away for life.

[niyad]

10. Life without parole.

[Traildogbob]

12. Fuck him.

Treason penalty is firing squad. Shoot him with his own guns. Empty ALL that ammo in his ass. Then we can be sure his purchases kill nobody else.

[DEbluedude]

13. Two shots.

One in the gut. Then 5 seconds later between the eyes. Unmasked.

[Traildogbob]

14. Unmasked😂

He needs to feel pain. Use the ammo to inflect the most pain. Shoot him until he apologized to the Speaker, then put him out of our misery. If this pisses off liberals, fine, take my membership. No fucks left. GQP created those monsters. They’ve brought out the evil in me.

[jmowreader]

15. Fuck that noise

Public hanging, like he wanted to do to the vice-president of the United States. I say we build a gallows like the one Albert Pierrepoint had at Hamelin Prison for hanging Nazis. It could hang two men at the same time. Trump can stand there and watch his followers be hanged before he himself receives the same punishment.

[drmeow]

24. I tend to close my eyes when movies get violent

but I'd watch that!

I also tend to be anti-death penalty except a lot of that is because it is not a deterrent, puts innocent people to death, and is unfairly applied to POC - since none of those apply in this case, bring it on!

[jmowreader]

28. Amazon has it

Be very careful when you buy it. It's sold under two titles: "Pierrepoint" and "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman." Unless you have a region-free DVD player, the one labeled "Pierrepoint" will be unwatchable. The other is in US region, so it's fine.

The violence in the film is kinda subdued: Pierrepoint was known for hanging people quickly, and all you really see is the "client" dropping out of sight.

[StarfishSaver]

16. What he SHOULD get, what he COULD get and what he is LIKELY to get are three different things

Tweets and memes don't tell the whole story...

Five years is the maximum that the sentencing guidelines allow for this crime. If folks are upset that the guidelines aren't harsher, they should take that up with Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Five years is what he COULD get ... IF his case went to trial, didn't get dismissed, prosecutors were able to convince 12 members of a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that his behavior met all of the elements of the crime charged AND they decided to throw the book at him. IF ... It's unlikely that even if he went to trial and was convicted, he would get the maximum.

This actual facts of this case make such an outcome far from being a sure thing. The prosecution would have a very difficult time getting a conviction. First of all, contrary to the meme's claim, Meredith didn't go to the Capitol. He never left his hotel room after texting the message to a relative and he claims that he was simply engaging in in "political hyperbole" and never intended to actually shoot Pelosi. Unless they can convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that this was actually a threat, despite never acting on the comment after he made it, Meredith would be acquitted and walk away a free man.

Instead, the prosecution accepted a plea bargain in which he admitted to having made a threat and he now faces jail time - not the full five years, but significant, nonetheless. A felony conviction and two years in prison is a hell of a lot better (or worse, depending on who's looking at it) in the end than a dismissal or acquittal and no time in jail.

Prosecutors have to make difficult charging decisions all the time. And they often have to decide whether "throwing the book" at someone and missing is a better result than agreeing to a less harsh sentence in return for a conviction and jail time. This is probably one of those instances.

It's easy for folks like Occupy Democrats to sit on the sidelines and tweet out overly-simplistic criticisms of very complicated matters. But in the real world, the people responsible for making these decisions have to consider many more facts and circumstances than criticisms like this take into account.

And I have no doubt that if prosecutors refused to plead these cases out and insisted on going to trial and then lost a bunch of cases and watched defendants' walk away, many of the same people who are insisting that they shouldn't allow anyone to plead to lesser charges in return for convictions and jail time would be complaining that so many of these criminals got away with their crimes.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. Thank you for walking this out.

[StarfishSaver]

20. You're welcome

I try, but am not sure how much good it does.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. I hear that.

[FSogol]

40. +1. Thanks for trying. n/t

[StarfishSaver]

42. Not sure how much good it's doing

I suspect that much of the complaining is coming from another place than frustration.

[FSogol]

39. Hey! What's up with all the common sense? Gotta get everyone outraged is SOP.

[grantcart]

47. +1 great points

[Richard58]

17. Five years?

He might get a whopping 5 yrs for going to DC to attempt to MURDER Nancy Pelosi? Black kids get sentences twice that long for just having weed! It's outrageous. He needs to get at least 20! But I guess if you are a right-wing white male you are special and need to get a lenient sentence.

[StarfishSaver]

19. That's the maximum that the federal sentencing guidelines allow under the law.

This isn't up to prosecutors or judges.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. Lotta wishful autocrats on this thread, whew.

[StarfishSaver]

23. Interesting, isn't it?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. And yet unsurprising, as usual.

[East-A-Squared]

22. Gitmo for him.

[Sherman A1]

32. +1000

[Evolve Dammit]

25. That sentence (projected maximum) is a joke and is not a deterrent to domestic terrorists. n/t

[StarfishSaver]

31. Perhaps. But in that case, Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission need to change the law

[Joinfortmill]

29. Doesn't seem like much for planning to execute the Speaker of the House.

[StarfishSaver]

30. Regardless what we think

From a legal standpoint, there's a gulf of a difference between someone texting a relative that he's "Thinking about heading over to Pelosi's speech and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV" and actually planning to execute the Speaker of the House.

[Evolve Dammit]

36. That's not pre-meditated intent? Would you require diagrams and manifestos?

[StarfishSaver]

37. No, it's not sufficient to prove intent

One comment in this context without any follow-up would be very difficult, if not impossible to prove intent. Especially since he's claiming he was just engaging in hyperbole. If a comment like that, without any subsequent action, were enough to justify a felony conviction for making a threat, a good number of people would be in jail for offhanded remarks.

Mind you, I believe this guy was up to no good, but what you and I believe and what a prosecutor can convince 12 jurors of are very different things. The fact that this guy said he was thinking about doing something (not that he was actually planning to do it), that he didn't take any subsequent action to further that thought, and he claims he was just talking sh+t, opens a hole for wide enough for his defense attorney to drive a truck through. It would be highly unlikely he'd ever be convicted. So getting a guilty plea and jail time is a win for the prosecution.

[Evolve Dammit]

38. Thanks for the in-depth explanation.

[StarfishSaver]

41. You're welcome

[Evolve Dammit]

43. What if you find more incriminating information, plans etc. on cell phones, PCs involving others?

Seems like you can do anything/ everything short of actually physically assaulting, abducting and/or stabbing/ shooting.

[StarfishSaver]

45. Yes, that would make a difference

But in this case, it's very likely that after fully investigating him - and they surely obtained and analyzed everything on his cellphone and computer - they didn't find enough evidence to believe that conviction at trial was a sure thing.

That's why I keep cautioning people not to jump to conclusions based on shallow memes, etc. We have no idea what evidence the prosecution does and doesn't have in each individual case. And, as I consistently say, these cases aren't as cut and dried as we might think. Each one is very unique and often complicated and the prosecutors have to make decisions based on the facts and circumstances of each individual case - not just say "we're gonna throw the book at everybody" which could end up with a whole lot of people walking away Scot free who could have been convicted and sent to jail.

[Evolve Dammit]

48. But don't steal a candy bar... I will deliberate on your detailed response. We're in recess.

[iemanja]

33. He won't get that much

It's up to five years. We'll be lucky if he gets 2.

[maxsolomon]

50. He'll be home with an ankle bracelet before 2023.

These are the small fish.

The nexus of Trump's dirty tricksters and the Fascist militias is where the sedition is.

[calimary]

34. Five years should be the floor, and not the ceiling.

[StarfishSaver]

35. Perhaps. But that's the law prosecutors have to work with

[albacore]

44. Some of you are too bloodthirsty for me..

I'd like to see him in prison for a long stretch. It would be much worse for him.
He's gonna have to be in some kind of protective custody, so he'd be out of his cell for an hour a day.... and still in a cage.
Maybe he'd be OK with that, but I think I'd rather be dead.

[Evolve Dammit]

49. Let's just not lose sight of who was "bloodthirsty" and wanted to put a bullet in Madame Speaker's

"noggin."