Tag: sentencing

Corey Becker pleaded guilty to attempted first–degree murder and to one count of kidnapping. He broke into a man’s house in St. Cloud. He then beat him and choked the victim. Becker had never been inside the man’s home before. Becker also did not know the victim. Becker stated that he did not remember the incident because he was drunk. He broke in around 3:30 a.m. and went into the man’s bedroom. He grabbed him by the throat and said, “you are the devil, and you need to die.” The man almost passed out from being choked. But was able to escape from his bathroom window. Becker also demanded sex from the man. The victim went to his neighbor’s house and was nude and badly beaten. Becker was found at another residence in the neighborhood. He said he did not know anything about the incident. The prosecutor is asking for an 18-year prison sentence. Becker’s sentencing is scheduled for January 22, 2015.
Minnesotans may be interested to learn that the National Survey on Drug Use and Health has released its results from 2011 and the number of people abusing prescription drugs is the lowest it has been since 2002. Marijuana use, however, is on the rise, with young people. The question is, why is one falling while one is rising? One man believes it is because of a lack of alternative sentencing programs for people arrested of marijuana use.
Two 20-something men from St. Paul may be facing a lifetime in prison after police are saying they have found 3 pounds of meth in their homes. When many people in Minnesota hear “life in prison” they are most likely thinking that these two men, 22- and 28-years-old, are running a vast methamphetamine empire across Minnesota and the United States. To find out that each are only facing a single count each of possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute meth, it seems like a ridiculously harsh punishment.
While many people in Minneapolis may think that longer and more frequent prison sentences will be an important deterrence to anyone convicted of a crime, they would be wrong. According to the PEW Center on the States, longer prison sentences do little curb non-violent offenders from getting in trouble with the law again. That means sending someone who was convicted of marijuana possession to prison for several years isn’t going to help him or her break a drug habit and he or she may just be back before a judge in a few years’ time.
Recently, a conference was held at William Mitchell College of Law that discussed potential changes to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Commissioner Lucinda Jesson of the Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for carrying out the program, as well as legislators from both parties attended. The state is currently facing serious issues in the treatment of sex offenders.
The sentencing phase of the Tom DeLay trial will begin today. The former congressman from Houston, Texas was convicted on the white collar crime charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering on November 24, 2010. The conspiracy and money laundering charges were a part of an illegal plan to direct campaign money from corporations to candidates from Texas running for political office in 2002.