This is why you don't put liberals in charge of law and order

[Dan Druff]

I realize that this is hard for most of you to believe, but judges are human beings. They make mistakes. BTW Druff, we did have a type of mandatory minimum sentencing in California under "three strikes". It was an absolute distaster, because you "law and order" republicans didn't want your taxes raised to pay for it. As a result, truly dangerous felons were being released to make room for small time drug dealers and thieves.

Come on, this isn't true and you know it.

Even the biggest critics of three strikes aren't claiming it is causing prison overcrowding. Sentences lengthened due to three strikes are only a small percentage of overall prison sentences in California, and of those, many of them would have been long anyway simply due to the fact that the criminal would have gotten a long sentence independent of the three strikes law.

Three strikes was not "an absolute disaster", but rather was actually effective at removing many dangerous criminals from the streets --- ones already with a history of serious felonies.

The only problem with three strikes was that the third felony didn't have to be as major -- or even as close to as major -- as the first two. So you had people sentenced to a minimum of 25 years for "minor" third felonies, and that didn't sit well with a lot of people. The law should have been modified, not scrapped.

Anyway, regardless of whether or not you agree with the three strikes law, that's not what I meant by mandatory minimums, and you also know that.

Three strikes set a minimum based upon previous convictions.

I'm talking about mandatory minimums based upon the CURRENT conviction, and its severity.

LOL @ your explanation that the judge was "human and makes mistakes". Come on. How does one "mistakenly" sentence a rapist showing zero remorse to just 6 months in prison? That's not a mistake. That's a horrible renegade judge who used his personal feelings about the defendant (in this case, a fellow Stanford athlete who would have a tough time in prison) to give a slap-on-the-wrist sentence for a terrible crime.

In fact, your argument that judges are "human and make mistakes" is an argument FOR mandatory minimums, thus removing that "human mistake" element from sentencing for serious crimes.