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by KumoriNova 1635 days ago
"More than 10 years would be utterly barbaric." False.

65 years in prison would be a fair sentence for her. Homeless people in America have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for stealing $100. Holmes stole an order of magnitude more than that. The US justice system needs to send a clear message to the would-be fraudsters that there are indeed some very serious penalties for being a criminal in this society.
6 comments
tptacek 1635 days ago
So, like, the argument would be that it is also barbaric to sentence a homeless person to 15 years for stealing $100.
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approxim8ion 1635 days ago
The jaded view on this would be that we should then serve justice from the bottom-up, rather than pretending to be reformative to let another privileged, white criminal get off easy while not fundamentally changing anything. I can't say I disagree too much with it either. There is no indication that widespread reform in the justice system is impending, or that starting here and now would have a cascading effect leading to a better, less vengeful system for everyone.
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41b696ef1113 1635 days ago
>Homeless people in American have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for stealing $100

Using an existing injustice in the US to defend another does not make it right.

I am no fan of Holmes or what she did, but locking away people for life is clearly not a winning strategy.

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KumoriNova 1635 days ago
I'm claiming Holmes is a criminal that deserves to be sentenced to the full extent of the law for the crimes she has committed. The US needs to hold criminals accountable for their actions. Otherwise we will continue to have a society full of criminals who exploit the justice system's leniency. 65 years in prison is completely fair for everything she did. In my opinion anyone who believes otherwise either doesn't care about the damage she has caused or doesn't fully understand the damage she has caused.
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lelanthran 1635 days ago
>>Homeless people in American have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for stealing $100

>

> Using an existing injustice in the US to defend another does not make it right.

While that is true, it is also true that the law must be fairly enforced on everyone. Having some people receive lighter sentences for similar-in-intent but larger-in-scale crimes is not fair enforcement.

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simonh 1635 days ago
The US is a jigsaw of different legal jurisdictions with varying laws, legal standards and sentencing practices. A crime in one state with a life sentence might not even be a crime in another. I know this is a federal case, but it seems unlikely the case of the homeless person was too.
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PKop 1635 days ago
How is it clearly not a winning strategy? That doesn't seem clear to me. It would be a losing strategy to view justice for criminals as "injustice"
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archon810 1635 days ago
An order of magnitude more than $100 would be $1,000. You're a pretty large number of magnitudes away.
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kbelder 1635 days ago
Almost an order of magnitude of orders of magnitude.
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KumoriNova 1635 days ago
I concur, your statement does indeed check out.

Though, it was my intent to communicate on the interwebs with a writing concept often referred to in some circles as 'a figure of speech'...

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selfhifive 1635 days ago
Stealing here would be robbing a person with the aid of violence or threat of violence. It's not really the same thing.
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CRConrad 1631 days ago
> Homeless people in America have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for stealing $100. Holmes stole an order of magnitude more than that.

No. SIX OR SEVEN orders of magnitude.

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stickfigure 1635 days ago
> Homeless people in America have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for stealing $100.

Do you have a link for that? I can't tell if this is hyperbole or not.

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KumoriNova 1635 days ago
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/homeless-man-vs-corporate-...

https://www.ktbs.com/news/man-who-took-one-bill-and-handed-r...

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stickfigure 1634 days ago
That is heartbreaking, though I'm not sure the bank teller would feel that way after having a "gun" pointed at them while the man yelled "this is a stickup". Also, the perpetrator may have had prior convictions.

In general we prosecute violet offenses (including the threat of violence, even if the gun wasn't real) more seriously than nonviolent offenses. While 15 years seems excessive (as do most prison sentences in the US, IMO), there's a lot of important context missing in your statement. Hyperbole might not be the right word, but I'd call it "substantially misleading".

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KumoriNova 1634 days ago
I am curious to know what direction it is that you think would be the appropriate direction my comment should be leading towards and also, I am curious to know which direction you think my comment is actually pointing towards with its "substantially misleading" content?

I get the vibe you are a white-collar criminal apologist, I could be wrong, but am I?

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