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23 Petty Crimes That Have Landed People in Prison for Life Without Parole
My WTF for this morning ...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/23-petty-crimes-prison-life-without-parole
As of last year, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 3,200 people were serving life in prison without parole for nonviolent crimes. A close examination of these cases by the ACLU reveals just how petty some of these offenses are. People got life for, among other things…
- Possessing a crack pipe
- Possessing a bottle cap containing a trace amount of heroin (too minute to be
weighed)
- Having traces of cocaine in clothes pockets that were invisible to the naked eye but
detected in lab tests
- Having a single crack rock at home
- Possessing 32 grams of marijuana (worth about $380 in California) with intent to
distribute
- Passing out several grams of LSD at a Grateful Dead show
- Acting as a go-between in the sale of $10 worth of marijuana to an undercover cop
- Selling a single crack rock
- Verbally negotiating another man's sale of two small pieces of fake crack to an
undercover cop
- Having a stash of over-the-counter decongestant pills that could be used to make
methamphetamine
- Attempting to cash a stolen check
- Possessing stolen scrap metal (the offender was a junk dealer)—10 valves and one
elbow pipe
- Possessing stolen wrenches
- Siphoning gasoline from a truck
- Stealing tools from a shed and a welding machine from a front yard
- Shoplifting three belts from a department store
- Shoplifting several digital cameras
- Shoplifting two jerseys from an athletic store
- Taking a television, circular saw, and power converter from a vacant house
- Breaking into a closed liquor store in the middle of the night
- Making a drunken threat to a police officer while handcuffed in the back of a patrol
car
- Being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm
- Taking an abusive stepfather's gun from their shared home
- Possessing a crack pipe
- Possessing a bottle cap containing a trace amount of heroin (too minute to be
weighed)
- Having traces of cocaine in clothes pockets that were invisible to the naked eye but
detected in lab tests
- Having a single crack rock at home
- Possessing 32 grams of marijuana (worth about $380 in California) with intent to
distribute
- Passing out several grams of LSD at a Grateful Dead show
- Acting as a go-between in the sale of $10 worth of marijuana to an undercover cop
- Selling a single crack rock
- Verbally negotiating another man's sale of two small pieces of fake crack to an
undercover cop
- Having a stash of over-the-counter decongestant pills that could be used to make
methamphetamine
- Attempting to cash a stolen check
- Possessing stolen scrap metal (the offender was a junk dealer)—10 valves and one
elbow pipe
- Possessing stolen wrenches
- Siphoning gasoline from a truck
- Stealing tools from a shed and a welding machine from a front yard
- Shoplifting three belts from a department store
- Shoplifting several digital cameras
- Shoplifting two jerseys from an athletic store
- Taking a television, circular saw, and power converter from a vacant house
- Breaking into a closed liquor store in the middle of the night
- Making a drunken threat to a police officer while handcuffed in the back of a patrol
car
- Being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm
- Taking an abusive stepfather's gun from their shared home