A recent article stated that one of the suspects in this case had prior arrests for carjacking, kidnapping and aggravated robbery in 2010, but that the charges were all dismissed. He was also reported to have gotten a three-year suspended sentence on a 2008 burglary. Again, our broken system of justice has let us down and we continue to have to pay for such lame results.
If they are convicted, the two armed thugs who attempted to rob Kennedy Jewelers on East Main Street on Monday should serve long - very long - terms in prison. They should be doddering old men when they finish serving every day of their sentences. Their actions during the attempted robbery endangered several lives, confirming that they are not qualified to live outside prison walls. If there is any way these criminals can be prosecuted in the federal justice system instead of in a state court, it should be done.
It’s too bad that there is such a wide disparity between the federal and the state courts’ sentences for those convicted of crimes as vicious and reckless as this one. Our state legislators should be busy upgrading the state sentencing guidelines so that they are at least as stringent as the federal sentencing guidelines. If there is not enough prison space for such dregs of society as the two who committed this crime, build more prisons.
Tom Williams