Because Life In Prison, Plus 500 Years, Isn't Enough

It may go down as the worst plea bargain of all time by a defense attorney. Kidnapper and polyrapist Ariel Castro has entered guilty pleas to 937 out of 977 counts and has been given life in prison without the possibility of parole. For good measure, the Judge then added an additional 1000 years of incarceration -- presumably for his soul, in some kind of Ghostbuster Muon-trap -- in the Ohio Penal System.

Three things jump out at me:

(1) it probably took longer for the Defendant to enter 937 guilty pleas than the attorney likely spent on legal research on a non-existent threat of the death penalty. The Death Penalty is only available where there is an actual first-degree murder (I may be wrong, but a cursory search has yet to find a case where allegedly inducing a miscarriage, but where the mother survived, has ever resulted in the death penalty.)

(2) 977 counts is silly. If I were the prosecutor I could have named that Indictment in 200 counts or less (Really, what is the point of charging the same thing hundreds of times)?

(3) Sentencing has morphed into some sort of symbolic gesture versus an actual and realistic application of Constitutional principals of measured justice (or at a minimum, one required to deal with conditions that exist in the natural universe).

Bottom line: Everyone’s happy this thing doesn’t need to be litigated; everyone agrees this guy deserves life-time incarceration; but everything about this case from the over-pleading, to the BS death penalty threat, to the ridiculous plea and more ridiculous sentence diminishes the sanctity and restraint of the awesome power of the judiciary and the prosecutor.

Boo to you all.