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Mom gets 99 years in prison for gluing tot's hands

PeteEU said:
Sorry but 99 years is a crazy out of proportion punishment for this.

Yes she should be punished, even with jail time, and have her kids removed from her. But throwing her in jail for the rest of her life? come on...... that is beyond insane.
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The US is not Norway or some other Eurotrash country that coddles criminals.
 
Sherman123 said:
I'll be a devils advocate here. I understand the personal gut instinct to want to inflict as much punishment as possible, it's natural for us to seek retribution and to fuel or indignation through it. But is society best effected by sending her to prison essentially for life? Is this women likely unreformable? Will she realistically seek to better herself, treatment, etc if she knows that she has no future? We've created a permanent ward of the state and added another life time member of our broken prison system. Obviously this is an easy case to jump on, but gratuitous sentencing with no real discussion over what the purpose is of imprisoning people is something that bothers me.
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She abused and beat a 2 year old to the point of death. Let her back into society and there's the chance she may breed again, I don't think it's worth the risk.
 
Well to be fair we don't coddle poor criminals. Rob a bank and get 20 years in a hard time prison. Rob investors and pay for a good legal team and you get 4 years in a Club fed. Hell hire a dream team and you can get away with murder.

It is as rare as Compassionate 'Conservatives' to see someone like Madoff get serious prison time, and he had to rob everyone from millionaires to Nun's pension funds to earn his stiff prison sentence.
 
Patrickt said:
I wonder how many months she will actually have to serve and how long after she gets out the child is returned to her.
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I think the rule of thumb is 1/3 of the sentence. So in 33 years she may be eligible to have her 35 yr old child "returned" to her.

idk where I got the 1/3 number though.
 
I suspect the mother knew that sticking her child's hands to a wall with super glue is wrong.

Training doesn't seem to be the issue.


samsmart said:
I keep telling people.

Birth control should be mandatory for people until they complete a 2-year course on parenting.
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Sherman123 said:
I'll be a devils advocate here. I understand the personal gut instinct to want to inflict as much punishment as possible, it's natural for us to seek retribution and to fuel or indignation through it. But is society best effected by sending her to prison essentially for life? Is this women likely unreformable? Will she realistically seek to better herself, treatment, etc if she knows that she has no future? We've created a permanent ward of the state and added another life time member of our broken prison system. Obviously this is an easy case to jump on, but gratuitous sentencing with no real discussion over what the purpose is of imprisoning people is something that bothers me.
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I am inclined to agree with the sentiments you're expressing. Idk know about this particular case though. We don't get very much from someone in prison. It's possible that after a decade behind bars she may have had time to reform herself.
She does need a very, very severe sentence.
But as it doesn't seem to be a pre-meditated crime I am not sure that she needs to be gone forever.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
However, I find it really unsettling that the punishment guidelines were between probation and life imprisonment. That's simply too much power for a single person to have.
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I think we should err on the side of giving judges too much discretion than not. It's their job. I would rather trust a judge who is there for the details of each particular case to make a decision based on those particulars rather than a state legislature's cookie cutter guidelines. Obviously we need a balance, but since we must err, I'd rather we err on the side of giving judges too much discretion rather than giving them too little.
 
Patrickt said:
I wonder how many months she will actually have to serve and how long after she gets out the child is returned to her.
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30 years before she is eligible for parole.
 
jamesrage said:
The US is not Norway or some other Eurotrash country that coddles criminals.
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Who the hell said to coddle her? Give her 10 years or 15.. but ****ing 99 years? waste of bloody money.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
I think we should err on the side of giving judges too much discretion than not. It's their job. I would rather trust a judge who is there for the details of each particular case to make a decision based on those particulars rather than a state legislature's cookie cutter guidelines. Obviously we need a balance, but since we must err, I'd rather we err on the side of giving judges too much discretion rather than giving them too little.
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There were no cookie cutter guidelines in this situation. The choices were no punishment, the ultimate punishment (life in prison) and everything in between.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I suspect the mother knew that sticking her child's hands to a wall with super glue is wrong.

Training doesn't seem to be the issue.
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Even so, it couldn't hurt.
 
How does one determine the correct proportion?

The justice system can do two things: punish and remedy.

If the aim is to punish the woman according to her crime, the only just action is to super glue her hands to a wall, and beat her until she is in a coma. However, our justice system does not operate this way.

If the aim is to remedy the situation, then the mother needs to be removed from society until she can no longer have children. With a 99 year prison sentence, she will likely walk out of jail a couple years after menopause.

PeteEU said:
Sorry but 99 years is a crazy out of proportion punishment for this.

Yes she should be punished, even with jail time, and have her kids removed from her. But throwing her in jail for the rest of her life? come on...... that is beyond insane.
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RabidAlpaca said:
There were no cookie cutter guidelines in this situation. The choices were no punishment, the ultimate punishment (life in prison) and everything in between.
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I noticed that.
Iirc, you suggested that some of the power of discretion be removed from the judge--presumably being replaced with more specific legislation, e.g. cookie-cutter sentences. Maybe I was wrong about what you meant.
 
PeteEU said:
Who the hell said to coddle her? Give her 10 years or 15.. but ****ing 99 years? waste of bloody money.
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You think someone who beats/tortures someone to near death should only get 10-15 years?
 
jamesrage said:
You think someone who beats/tortures someone to near death should only get 10-15 years?
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So you are saying that everyone in the US who beats/tortures someone to near death get 99 years? Every wife beater, every CIA torture expert, every cop that beats suspects and so on?
 
Simon W. Moon said:
I am inclined to agree with the sentiments you're expressing. Idk know about this particular case though. We don't get very much from someone in prison. It's possible that after a decade behind bars she may have had time to reform herself.
She does need a very, very severe sentence.
But as it doesn't seem to be a pre-meditated crime I am not sure that she needs to be gone forever.
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While it was quite possibly not pre-meditated, I think there is strong chance that it was not the first time she abused one of her children. An attack like that, to me, doesn't come out of the blue. Yes, she lost control, but a person who has never struck or harmed their child is not likely to go off to this extent. Maybe the judge considered that as well?
 
Hatuey said:
For once I agree with a ruling from Texas. What this thing did to her daughter is torturous to the point of attempted murder. People like this should NOT be allowed to have children.
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Of course not. You're right. So the kid will be removed from her care and she should have a choice between jail until menopause or sterilization.

Patrickt said:
I wonder how many months she will actually have to serve and how long after she gets out the child is returned to her.
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N/A. Not going to happen.

Sherman123 said:
I'll be a devils advocate here. I understand the personal gut instinct to want to inflict as much punishment as possible, it's natural for us to seek retribution and to fuel or indignation through it. But is society best effected by sending her to prison essentially for life? Is this women likely unreformable? Will she realistically seek to better herself, treatment, etc if she knows that she has no future? We've created a permanent ward of the state and added another life time member of our broken prison system. Obviously this is an easy case to jump on, but gratuitous sentencing with no real discussion over what the purpose is of imprisoning people is something that bothers me.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the questioning attitude, but rehabilitation isn't really the end-all be-all. If she wants to be a better person in the future, that's great, but that will be up to her, and between her and her mental health/substance abuse professional. Society is best effected (in my opinion) by this woman no longer having an option to be a child or other person's guardian. The cheapest and most humane way to accomplish that should be up for serious discussion.
 
Life in prison for attempted murder seems a little over the top. That said I have no real issue with the ruling. She can be out in 30 years, which is a perfectly acceptable punishment to me.
 
I'm guessing the woman's character played into this. During the sentencing hearing she admitted to lying to her defense team, prosecutors, police, her doctors, her jailers, etc. She also admitted to persistent drug use after posting bail and being released prior to the sentencing hearing.

As far as I'm concerned, any person who would beat a child to the brink of death after torturing them doesn't deserve leniency. A two year old has absolutely no means of self defense against an adult, and this woman didn't just use her hands. She super glued the child's hands to the wall. She beat the girl with a gallon of milk. She abused her so severely that the girl had bleeding in her brain and was in a coma for 2+ weeks.

In addition, two of her older children had to witness the crime and were the ones who told the police what happened. Can you imagine the psychological damage done to THEM by this woman's rage?

Premeditated or not, her actions were excessive, vicious, and unforgivable. Some crimes don't lend to the criminal deserving a second chance. In my opinion, this is one of them. Had the child died, I suspect a lot of people would be wondering why the bitch isn't going to see the death room in Huntsville.
 
PeteEU said:
So you are saying that everyone in the US who beats/tortures someone to near death get 99 years? Every wife beater, every CIA torture expert, every cop that beats suspects and so on?
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There are cheaper ways than 99 years. But you would be more offended by shooting them. So 99 years is a compromise. Reach across the isle my friend.
 
She would have gotten less time if she just killed the child.
 
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