Early release is going to be a disaster. It would be less of a disaster if the public had access to the real criminal histories of the people being released. But we’re being kept in the dark: nobody wants to admit the chaos in criminal record-keeping.
Kevin Eugene Peterson
Already, someone has been cut loose on the pretense that was merely a non-violent offender, when he was not. He immediately tried to rape a stranger. How immediately? A few hours. Expect more of the same:
Kevin Eugene Peterson, who was released from the Sacramento County Main Jail around 11:30 p.m. Monday, was arrested by Sacramento police around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday after he allegedly attempted to rape a female counselor at Sacramento’s Loaves and Fishes on North C Street.
Peterson qualified for the early-release program, supposedly restricted to non-violent offenders, because his latest arrest was for violating parole on an earlier felony: assault with a deadly weapon. Get it? He should have still been in prison for the felony weapon charge, but because they let him go early to save money, once he got sent back to prison for breaking the law again, he was classified non-violent, rather than counting the parole revocation as a reinstatement of his previous sentence.
Most people assume that revoking parole means reinstating the person’s original sentence. That is, after all, what we are told about the parole process. We’re not told the truth, apparently.
So by failing to abide by the law the last time he was released, Peterson got himself to the head of the line to be released early a second time. Now a woman has been abducted and terrorized. Authorities say their hands are tied, however, because they are bound by the rules that classified Peterson as “non-violent”:
Peterson was one of 121 non-violent inmates released from Sacramento detention Monday and Tuesday after the state penal code was re-written as a cost-saving measure. About 250 inmates were expected to be let free by week’s end. While good behavior traditionally could cut up to a third of a California jail inmate’s sentence, the new law passed by the state Legislature last year mandated county jail inmates with good behavior be set free after serving only half of their sentenced term. While all of the inmates considered for early release are non-violent offenders, Peterson was originally arrested in August 2007 in south Sacramento on a felony assault with a deadly weapon. However, since Peterson served that sentence and was sent back on a non-violent probation violation in December, he was eligible for early release. Also, the assault with a deadly weapon charge did not result in great bodily injury to the victim, nor did that attack include the use of a fire arm.
More loopholes: because Peterson failed in his effort to do “great bodily harm” to someone, and the “deadly weapon” he used was something other than a gun, the great whirling roulette wheel of justice eventually slotted him out as a non-violent offender. There are a million such loopholes in our sentencing laws, not to mention the giant classificatory loophole that is plea bargaining.
Which raises a serious, though entirely neglected question: how many of these other “non-violent” offenders slated for release, or released already, are actually violent felons?
When politicians promise that only non-violent offenders will be allowed to walk free in these cost-cutting schemes, they’re lying.
~~~
Speaking of erasing evidence of crime, here is one sadly typical consequence of extreme leniency: subsequent violent death of the offender. He might have been safer in prison, after all:
Charles Montgomery
Charles Montgomery was born in the back room of his grandparents’ house on the 400 block of E. 104th St. in the Green Meadows neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Twenty-four years later he died on that very street, a few houses down, shot on his way home from the store in the early afternoon, his family said. . . Montgomery, a 24-year-old black man, was shot several times in his upper body about 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15 by a man who approached him on foot, police said. Montgomery died at the scene. . . Police said they have no suspects and no witnesses have come forward. “It was broad daylight — it just don’t get more blatant,” said Kali Kellup, Montgomery’s cousin. ”Somebody saw something.”
No witnesses have come forward. Kellup also said that people were shocked because his cousin was shot in a little section of the block that was “considered neutral territory.” That a war zone with agreed-upon “neutral” spaces is an accepted reality in any corner of America ought to be more shocking.
Raised by his grandparents, who have lived on the block for more than 50 years, Montgomery was known to be “happy go-lucky” and constantly in motion. His family said he had the mental state of a child; he was afflicted with an unknown mental condition that doctors could not diagnose. “He was always happy, always laughing about something,” Kellup said. “Even if you didn’t know what it was, he was laughing about something.”
He was also charged with attempted forcible rape, and kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon, serious charges that got pleaded down to a non-sexual charge. I tend not to believe people who claim that a predator isn’t responsible for his crimes because of mental incapacity. If you’re capable of kidnapping and assaulting someone, you’ve got some competence, not to mention enough to face the consequences. If there are consequences:
As a teenager, Montgomery spent two years at juvenile hall before being charged as an adult with assault with intent to commit a felony, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and attempted forcible rape, according to court documents. In 2003, two years after he was taken into custody, his court-appointed attorney agreed to a plea on his behalf. Montgomery was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, and the other charges were dropped, according to court records. Montgomery was sentenced to two years in state prison; however, he was given over two years of credit for time in custody and good behavior and was released, according to court records.
Two years, and no record as a sex offender, for assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and attempted forced rape. That’s what passes for normal these days, but the Justice Department and their Crime Experts keep insisting that we are far too harsh on all offenders, that we need to roll back sentencing even more. To what, minutes or hours in a cell? When you already get time served for armed kidnapping and attempted forcible rape, or a slap on the wrist and two-time early release for assault with a deadly weapon, what exactly are we going to cut? The people controlling this debate are not speaking honestly.
Kellup said he believed his cousin was innocent. “He was basically a fall guy,” he said. “It was a travesty of justice.”
Just a “fall guy” in a kidnapping and attempted rape? Hmm, with a deadly weapon involved? If everyone, from the prosecutor and the defense attorney and the judge, to his own family, had not worked so hard to excuse Montgomery’s prior crime, then he would probably still be alive today. In prison, but not dead.
“I wish they’d stop the killing,” Montgomery’s grandmother said. “Young people killing one another for no reason at all.”