ArkAngel: From the article, it sounds to me like she made herself willfully ignorant of the smuggling. Not feeling much sympathy, despite my pro-legalization stance

Come on, life w/o parole? She gets the same punishment as a guy in a non-death penalty state who kills and eats his entire family?

So we set up a system to prevent poor people from bettering themselves.

Then we set up a system to arrest people who get desperate to provide for their families.

Then we up the budget of the Private Prison Industry.

Here in PA, carrying paraphernalia is 5 times more harsh than having a small bag of weed.

Those prisons aren't going to fill themselves, you know. And Correction Corporation of America's CEO is expecting his fat bonus. So suck it up, little campers, we have to have inmates in those cells.

From the article, it sounds to me like she made herself willfully ignorant of the smuggling. Not feeling much sympathy, despite my pro-legalization stance

RoyBatty: Gyrfalcon: All you dipshiats saying "Oh, she played the game she should do the time blah blah blah" are missing the essential point here. Well, points.1. She would have been offered a plea bargain IF she had had something to "trade", but she didn't. So she gets life in prison.2. Other thugs and killers, who did MUCH MUCH worse than just transport coke DID have something to "trade"--so they're getting the deal this old lady couldn't make.3. Even the prosecutor admits that you have to play the system to get your out of jail free card.

It's reasonable to be both upset that prosecutors play sentencing games and be okay with providing a harsh sentence to this woman in jail for conspiracy to transport a literal ton of cocaine.

I don't see these as conflicting ideas.

They're not--but everyone is concentrating on blaming granny for being stupid, and ignoring the fact that at the same time she was locked up for life for smuggling her ton of coke, a metric ass-ton of other dealers, smugglers and cartel warlords cut their deals and will be out to deal, smuggle, and cut off heads while this old woman is still rotting in prison.

Why no outrage for the fact which I pointed out, that Zeta-kingpin Oscar Cardenas, currently in prison in Houston, cut his deal with the same federal prosecutor who sent the granny to jail for life, and will be OUT in 2025, at the tender age of 57, and head straight back to Mexico to play with his Zeta buddies? Better to let the cooperators go free? Is Cardenas going to "learn his lesson" or something? (yeah right) Or do we just buy into the idea that gaming the system is good and not having something to "deal" with is bad so you should suffer for it?

All you dipshiats saying "Oh, she played the game she should do the time blah blah blah" are missing the essential point here. Well, points.

1. She would have been offered a plea bargain IF she had had something to "trade", but she didn't. So she gets life in prison.
2. Other thugs and killers, who did MUCH MUCH worse than just transport coke DID have something to "trade"--so they're getting the deal this old lady couldn't make.
3. Even the prosecutor admits that you have to play the system to get your out of jail free card.

Cardenas once led one of Mexico's most powerful syndicates and created the Zetas gang. He pleaded guilty in Houston and is to be released by 2025. He'll be 57.

So, think of that as you're heaping scorn on this old lady who turned a blind eye to the drugs on her bus. She'll never be getting out of prison, and apparently you think that's AOK--but the head of the Zetas cartel will be out of prison in about ten years, and younger then than she is now, and ready to get back to work, because he had "information to trade." Yay the American judicial system!

namatad: and your complaint is that you had nothing to trade? ROFL

Not quite. The complaint is that people who do far worse than this woman, but DO have something to trade, get light sentences. If life without parole is the sentence, then it should be unilaterally applied to everyone. But that won't happen because there needs to be loopholes for the rich, the privileged, and a way to gain intelligence without resorting to more controversial methods (aka torture and interrogation).

GAT_00: Well, we can't be soft on crime, now can we conservatives?

You people are the ones who gave us this. Why are you so offended about it now? Didn't expect it would ever be applied to anyone except black people?

Somehow I don't think that conservatives are really upset over a Mexican woman going to jail for smuggling.

/Don't know if she's guilty or innocent.

I don't even think she did anything, beyond conspiracy. Thats a shiat ton of blow but life in prison for conspiring to smuggle!? This is disgusting.

Revek: They punish you if you don't take the deal.

Not if you have a spare $100k to spend on lawyers, they don't.

Le sigh

If only we could give this kind of punishment to first time child sex offenders.

/too damned harsh? You damned right!