Reply to Tennessee pol threatens New Yorkers after tourist busted at Ground Zero with loaded gun

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]I get that you like the idea of putting a pretty, white southern girl in jail on general principles. I just don't agree. Even if NYC's gun control laws are defensible, which I disagree with as well, the facts here present a pretty compelling case for declination of prosecution or executive clemency. That's why we have those concepts in the criminal justice system at all.[/quote]

No, not at all.  But I don't like the idea of a double standard that seems, to me at least, to be based in large part on race.

And NY's laws are defensible, in that they've passed muster by the state appellate and federal courts.

And I'm curious as to what facts lead you to the conclusion that prosecution should be declined.  [/quote]

How on earth are you getting a double standard "based in large part on race" when the only two cases considered on this thread have a much more significant difference, in that the gun went off in one of them, and not the other, and someone was actually shot in one of them (albeit shot by himself)?   That's a huge difference in culpability.  As I said, I think Plaxico got screwed, but that was less to do with race, I think, and more to do with him being a celebrity and Bloomberg trying to make a point; Plaxico kind of got the Martha Stewart treatment, and she was surely not singled out because of her race.

As for defensibility, I wasn't referring to legal defensibility, I think that it is ridiculous as a matter of policy to have mandatory minimums for first-time, non-violent offenses of this nature.   Judges should have more sentencing discretion in such cases.

I think declination is appropriate here because of the unusually low level of culpability (i.e., she's a tourist and has a better excuse for not knowing the law than a resident; she was only caught when she tried to comply with "a no guns allowed" sign); she doesn't present a significant recidivism risk; and, most significantly, the draconian nature of the minimum penalty.  If sentencing were more nuanced, probation or a fine would be a better disposition, but since that seems not to be available, declination would be appropriate here.  I'd revisit the issue if she turns out to have a meaningful criminal history.  You should bear in mind that it is a baseline principle of our criminal justice system that prosecutors are not *required* to prosecute in any particular case.  This is not a special exception for white girls, and if you have ever been warned instead of given a speeding ticket, you have been the beneficiary of precisely that sort of discretion.  Law is a very blunt instrument, so some judgment is necessary to make the system work well.

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