Whether accident truck driver or Aubrey killers; no one deserve life sentence

Life sentences are in the news lately. It was a bad thing when the justice system imposed a 110 year sentence on Rogel Aquilera-Mederos for negligent driving that killed 4 in Colorado 2 years ago. A fluke in Colorado law involving multiple charges and minimum sentences that had to be served consecutively (one after the other) demanded Aguilera-Mederos receive a life sentence. It was a good thing when Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted the sentence to 10 years. Colorado legislators need to fix the peculiar sentencing guidelines that made the 110 year sentence mandatory over the objections of the sentencing judge.

Then yesterday, the McMichael father and son, Gregory and Travis, received life without parole for murdering Ahmaud Arbery while in the process of making a citizens’ arrest for the imaginary crime of a black man jogging thru a white neighborhood in Georgia. Their neighbor Roddie Bryan received life with the possibility of parole in 30 years when he is 82. Again, it was state law, not a considered judgement, which mandated the 3 life sentences. Georgia law allows 3 sentences for first degree murder; death, natural life, or life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Only the last sentence truly serves justice.

Unlike truck driver Aquilera-Mederos, the Georgia trio will not get 3,000,000 folks demanding a more appropriate sentence. I, however, will offer my plea that all 200,000 hapless souls languishing in prison for life, 50,000 of whom with no chance for parole (https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Life_imprisonment_in_the...), have their life sentences reduced to a number commencerite to the true aim of justice.

No citizen, even relatives of murder victims, should to expect the perpetrator to die in prison. That is not required in our criminal justice system designed simply to provide a measure of justice, punishment and deterrence while protecting society at large.

The 1958 release of ‘Thrill Killer’ Nathan Leopold for the grisly 1924 murder of his cousin illustrates this view. Leopold's exemplary conduct won him parole after serving 34 years, a third of his hundred year sentence. Only 52, he relocated to Puerto Rico where he became an X-Ray technician in a church hospital. He earned a master's degree, taught at the University of Puerto Rico, became a researcher in social services in Puerto Rico's health department, did research in leprosy, urban renewal and housing. He traveled extensively to research a book he published on Puerto Rican bird life. He married a widow in 1961 who was with him till his death at 66 in 1971.

Nathan Leopold's case argues not only for abolishing capital punishment, but for modifying our sentencing guidelines to offer a path for similar offenders to demonstrate both their rehabilitation and their readiness to rejoin society at some point. Nobody lost when Nathan Leopold was paroled after 34 years. No potential murderer thinks that 34 years imprisonment is a fair trade to kill someone.

As much as Nathan Leopold gained from his freedom instead of dying in prison, society achieved even more. Sixty-four years after Leopold’s early release, American justice still has its head buried in the sand of vengeance.