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(i.e. mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent criminals)-- bell labs (lindsay...), February 14th, 2007. (bell_labs)
maybe you and i are talking about different things, but the supreme court just recently deemed unconstitutional the mandatory sentencing guidelines. it happened about 6 months before my date. had it not, i was pretty much surely destined for prison. i don't want to make this thread about me, but damn, that fact still astounds me.
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 03:56 (seventeen years ago) link
Copyright 2006 The Seattle Times Company
The Seattle TimesNovember 14, 2006 Tuesday
Fourth Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1390 words
HEADLINE: Rare criminal trial focuses attention on "huge problem" of prison rape
BYLINE: Jennifer Sullivan, Seattle Times staff reporter
BODY:
Tremayne Francis is a cellmate's worst nightmare.
Convicted in 1998 of raping two young men while working as a martial-arts instructor in Pierce County, Francis was sent to prison for nine years. But even behind the razor wire, Francis used extortion and violence to force fellow inmates to have sex with him and raped two men new to prison, according to prison records.
When confronted by prison staff, Francis, 34, claimed he had a multiple-personality disorder and denied the rapes, claiming the sex was consensual, records show. Though found guilty of both rapes in prison hearings, the worst punishment he endured was solitary confinement and victim-awareness classes each time ending up back in the general prison population.
But Francis is facing a criminal trial this week in Snohomish County Superior Court for the 2005 rape of an inmate at the Monroe Correctional Complex, the first such prosecution since the state enacted a new federal policy aimed at reducing prison rape. Because of how unusual it is for prison rapes to become the focus of a criminal prosecution, the case has drawn the attention of the state Department of Corrections, as well as prosecutors and inmate-rights groups nationwide.
"We've never had a prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assault prosecuted in this county before. It just doesn't happen very often," said Matt Baldock, the Snohomish County deputy prosecutor who will try Francis. "I have not heard from anybody who has prosecuted a case like this before."
Baldock says he faces an uphill battle in trying to win a conviction against Francis. He's certain many jurors seated before him this week will wonder why they should even care what happens to prison inmates.
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 05:09 (seventeen years ago) link