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Judge for a day - II: Escapee edition

By Gideon

Since the first installment of “Judge for a day” was so successful, I’ve decided to bring it back for another round. This time, ripped right from the headlines. By now, most of you have heard of Susan M. LeFevre. LeFevre, also known as Marie Walsh, was arrested in her “hometown” of Del Mar, San Diego. Problem is, she was on the lam for 32 years. LeFevre, as she was known back in Michigan, was sentenced to a 10 to 20 year sentence back in 1974, for sale of heroin (although differing stories are emerging about her role).

One year later, she ran away from the prison, at the age of 21. Now 53, she is married with children, living a law-abiding, successful life. Now, she faces the remainder of her sentence and a corrections spokesperson said that it’s most likely that she’ll be required to serve 5 1/2 years of the time she owes.

Pretend, however, that you are the prosecutor/judge that has to decide what to do with her. She obviously escaped from prison and owes time. Since then, however, she has lived a law-abiding life and has raised a family. This was also 32 years ago. She is now 53. Important to note, also, is that her co-defendant was released on parole after serving two years of the same 10 to 20 year sentence. He was sentenced on the same day as her.

What do you do? Do you go after her hard for the escape? Or do you take into account her life and her family and the nature of the crime (drugs, after all) and her age at the time of the crime and offer to re-negotiate the deal and sentence her to something lesser, like probation and community service?

After all, one of the purposes of imprisonment is rehabilitation and prevention of future crime. She’s already shown that she’s no recidivist, so is there any point to incarceration now?

What would you do and what do you think is the just outcome in this case? I’ve already tipped my hand as to what I think should happen.

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Images from Michigan DOC and AP

Tags: susan+lefevre, marie+walsh, escape

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Full post as published by A Public Defender on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).