General Discussion

joeybee12

(56,177 posts) Wed May 7, 2014, 07:01 PM May 2014

Drug mule, 90, gets 3 years for hauling cocaine, seeks to delay imprisonment

A federal judge today sentenced a 90-year-old man to three years in prison for hauling cocaine across the country for a Mexican drug cartel.

Moments before being sentenced, the elderly drug mule, Leo Sharp, asked for mercy and threatened to kill himself if sentenced to prison.

“I’m really heartbroken I did what I did. But it’s done,” Sharp said. “I won’t live in prison, I’m just going to end my life if I end up there.”

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said she couldn’t justify not sending Sharp to prison considering the seriousness of his crime.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140507/NEWS01/305070075/Leo-Sharp-Drug-mule-to-be-sentenced-in-Detroit-today-on-90th-birthday

7 replies

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Drug mule, 90, gets 3 years for hauling cocaine, seeks to delay imprisonment (Original Post) joeybee12 May 2014 OP

it's time to end the war on drugs and stop the incarceration state.... mike_c May 2014 #1

+1000000 nomorenomore08 May 2014 #4

Here I wonder why they can't do something like house arrest. ScreamingMeemie May 2014 #2

No kidding, no 90 year old man is that big a threat to society Warpy May 2014 #3

If we were a sane and/or humane society that's probably what he'd get. nomorenomore08 May 2014 #5

I meant to point that out Warpy May 2014 #6

This guy reporedly also suffers from dementia etherealtruth May 2014 #7

mike_c

(36,281 posts)

1. it's time to end the war on drugs and stop the incarceration state....

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:03 PM

May 2014

eom

nomorenomore08

(13,324 posts)

4. +1000000

Reply to mike_c (Reply #1)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:40 PM

May 2014

ScreamingMeemie

(68,918 posts)

2. Here I wonder why they can't do something like house arrest.

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:03 PM

May 2014

Warpy

(111,367 posts)

3. No kidding, no 90 year old man is that big a threat to society

Reply to ScreamingMeemie (Reply #2)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:39 PM

May 2014

not even the ones who are career criminals. House arrest sounds fine to me, too. Let him out once a week for shopping and haircuts and doctor visits.

nomorenomore08

(13,324 posts)

5. If we were a sane and/or humane society that's probably what he'd get.

Reply to Warpy (Reply #3)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:41 PM

May 2014

Then again, he probably wouldn't have had to resort to trafficking cocaine in his 80's, in such a society.

Warpy

(111,367 posts)

6. I meant to point that out

Reply to nomorenomore08 (Reply #5)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:43 PM

May 2014

but a review of the harsh conditions a lot of our elderly live under is too much to ask of a country that would throw one in prison for 3 years for trying to make enough extra money to last him until the end.

etherealtruth

(22,165 posts)

7. This guy reporedly also suffers from dementia

Reply to joeybee12 (Original post)

Wed May 7, 2014, 07:48 PM

May 2014

I fail to see what good sending him to prison will do ...? He is not violent, I have read nothing indicating he was a danger to himself or others. As someone up-thread suggested ... house arrest (a good idea) ... take away his car and driver's license (I realize that would not necessarily stop him from driving) ... but prison at 90 ... really?

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