Ezekiel Edwards

You Be The Judge, Part 2

I only received one response to my "You Be The Judge" entry --- from LB (Lochner's Bakers) --- but it was intelligent and thoughtful, so I will post it again below:

"I'd say this should be a misdemeanor with a fine. The fine should be somewhere in the low thousands. The exact amount of the fine is the only thing that should depend on her financial resources.

The crime was not violent, so incarceration doesn't make sense.

The crime was not drug or gun or any ongoing problem that could benefit from probation, so that doesn't make sense.

Community service may be a decent alternative, but the harm was not so much to the community as to the government, since they had to cover all the investigation of the theft."

Although I do not entirely agree, I consider the above suggestion very reasonable. There are some people, including a close member of my family, who believe that the woman should become a convicted felon, spend a short period of time incarcerated, receive one year of probation, and pay a fine equivalent to any police overtime. The District Attorney's Office position would be that the 25-year-old mother of two children who has never been arrested before receive a felony (thereby becoming a convicted felon for the rest of her life), five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine, regardless of her financial resources. But I ask:

-Why should this young woman be a lifelong felon, with all of the serious collateral consequences that accompany a felony conviction (after all, a misdemeanor would still give her a criminal record for life, not to mention the other available option of offering her the non-criminal disposition of a violation)?
-Why should she receive five years of probation, or any probation whatsoever, when this is her first offense, she has shown no propensity for disobeying the law, she has a stable living situation, and two children?
-What purpose would incarceration serve, particularly for a non-violent first offense, other than taking her away from her two young children?
-Why should she pay a $5,000 fine, a debilitating amount for most people, a crippling amount for some people, particularly in one of our nation's poorest counties, when she is the sole caretaker for two children?

If I were the judge or the Assistant District Attorney evaluating the case, I would suggest a violation (so she would not receive a criminal record), a fine of $200 (to be paid over a few months), and some community service.

I guess that is why I am defender, not a prosecutor...

Ezekiel Edwards: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:52 AM, Mar 16, 2006 in Criminal Justice
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