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As a former US attorney, I appreciate the importance of accountability for my actions. We are well aware of the tremendous effort it takes to raise successful people, including
Accountability is an important part of the lessons learned as children veer toward problems. All parents who hold their children accountable do so in hopes that lessons can be learned from their mistakes.
in order to Idaho mom and 18 year old son, Stephen’s hopes of lessons learned were undermined after his son was first arrested on drug trafficking charges by a harsh Idaho law imposing a mandatory three-year prison sentence.
Here, accountability isn’t focused on getting Stephen back on course. Judges have no authority to consider Steven’s previous clean record, turnaround in academic performance, and community redemption efforts in determining an appropriate measure of accountability.
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Being a judge is literally the practice of judgment. It’s no coincidence that it’s in the title. Judges are tasked with making some of the toughest criminal justice decisions in society.
The judge’s role is presumed to be to weigh the evidence and develop an appropriate measure of accountability in arson, rape, or robbery cases. Do you think you can’t make judgments about people or first-time offenders like Stephen?
Of course, Idaho’s criminal code addresses drug trafficking, and many provisions are largely unacceptable. The federal government is known for being a slouch when it comes to the drug war, but has not considered imposing human trafficking until someone gets his 100 grams of heroin, for example. Her four-day supply of the drug to a typical user). And if someone hits any of these drug weight thresholds in Idaho, the prison sentence that accompanies it is mandatory, no ifs, ands, or buts. you can’t.
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It may seem like you read the word “required” plainly, In practice, this is far from standard practice in the United States. Not all states mandate minimum sentences, but most of those that do follow federal directives and make available “safety valves.”
Legislatures across the country have adopted safety valves with the understanding that they cannot anticipate, much less legislate, every factual scenario that may accompany a crime enshrined in law. , because it does exactly that.
It outlines the narrow cases in which judges may deviate from mandatory minimum sentences in the interest of justice, such as when the defendant is nonviolent, has little or no criminal record, and cooperates with authorities. increase.
In other words, safety valves allow judges to make rare but critical decisions when mandatory minimum sentences exceed their intended use.
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Legislatures across the country have adopted safety valves with the understanding that they cannot legislate, let alone anticipate, every factual scenario that could accompany a crime stipulated by law, and that Because we understand. A safety valve recognizes these all-too-human limitations and allows judges to effectively return to the ring in these special circumstances.
This is a particularly important tag-team effort in the case of drug trafficking because of the unreliability of drug weight as a measure of the seriousness of someone’s responsibility or conduct. Some will likely count towards the legal weight limit, making “drug weight” something of a misnomer.
Moreover, the amount of drugs a person has been arrested for does not always reflect the nature of their responsibility within drug trafficking networks. Kingpins or cartel bosses are more responsible than drug traffickers, but they rarely find drugs in their possession.
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Safety valves and other provisions that reinsert a modest amount of judicial discretion allow the judicial system to better tailor the measure of accountability to each defendant. If the hammer needs to be dropped, the judges can drop it. However, when public safety is not at stake, as in Steven’s case, the judge can instead render a more appropriate sentence that reflects the defendant’s circumstances. This allowed Stephen to return to the course instead of spending his next three years in prison, not to mention valuable correctional resources saved in the process.
It’s too late for a kid like Stephen, but the Idaho legislature has an opportunity at this session to create its own provisions to replicate the benefits of safety valves, or to update drug weight thresholds.
The Idaho State Capitol in Boise, Idaho.
(Power Off Forever via Getty Images)
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As a former prosecutor who has seen children off course because of their drug involvement, I believe the nature of such crimes requires judges to do more of what they do best: judge. I believe you are.
As a father and a grandfather, I believe that our response to our children’s mistakes should be aimed at ensuring that their futures are defined by the lessons they learn. should not be taken away.
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