Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
$1:
"eligibility" not "automatic".
A good point but I won't hold my breath, given the parole boards propensity for granting early release to a majority of violent criminals.
In this case the problem isn't with the sentencing, its the public perception that early release is almost a given for violent crime. especially when it involves a young offender, whether he has been tried in adult court or not.
Unfortunately the pubic is always wrong in these matters because all they ever hear about are the ones the press reports in order to garner the outrage factor and sell papers.
Do some people get far less then they deserve? Absolutely. The above cited criminals deserve death as far as I am concerned.
Our system is and always has been designed to minimize false imprisonments and with rehabilitation in mind. That means that we will always have people getting away with stuff and getting less then they deserve.
Why is it that so many people with a hard-on for brutal justice never ever understand that all those countries that practice it are the same ones they want to bomb?
There is a conection.
How a society treats its pets, prisoners, sick, and its elderly are a direct reflection on them and speaks to its character more then anything else.