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Garrido case leading to useful reflections and questions about sentencing practices

By Douglas A. Berman

Often, one high-profile ugly crime by a repeated offender leads to an extreme reaction to an outlier case. This my be part of the story that follows the discovery of the remarkable crimes of the Garrido family, but we should not overlook the appropriate reflections and hard questions being asked in this wake of the discovery of this remarkable crime. Specifically, consider this effective item from Chuck Lane in the Washington Post, which is headlined "How Jaycee Lee Dugard's Tormentor Got Out." It provides a reminder of how different sentencing practices were decades ago when Phillip Garrido was sentenced for his first rape: Thirty-three years ago, the law specifically provided that no prisoner could serve more than 10 years in the federal system without at least a chance at parole -- regardless of his original sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).