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Longtime Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham Jr. has finally made a statement concerning last Friday's tragic shooting. Graham is basically blaming the Department of Corrections for the alleged shooter's ostensibly short sentence.
Let's look at the most glaring of Graham's misstatements:
"It's my understanding he was given 75 days good time for every day he served."Looking at this step by step...
365 days in a year
3.650 days in 10 years
Now let's divide 3.650 by 75. What do we get?
Just under 49 days.
In other words, if Bryce Graham's statement had any validity, Brian Martin would have served under two months in the state correctional system.
In actuality, an inmate serving a sentence for a Class B felony of not more than 15 years receives 75 days credit for every 30 days he serves. Quite a difference.
Could the district attorney's office have made sure Mr. Martin served ten years in total? Certainly. That stipulation should have been added to the plea agreement. It's not that unusual, but without it a prisoner is eligible for both parole and Correctional Incentive Time. Let's not blame the DOC for not being able to read Graham's mind.
DA Graham also mentioned that Martin shot three police officers. Really? Who was the third?
If these are the kind of prosecution errors we can expect in the upcoming trial, we can only imagine the number of appeals this case will generate.
It is tragic that this young man lost his life as a police officer. Unfortunately, it is one of the hazards of the job. Fortunately, it is extremely rare in the profession. Criminals should be prosecuted to the extent of the law. THE LAW. NOT public opinion enflamed by a sensationalist media reporting news that is often tainted and in a lot of cases just plain old wrong. The public is unfortunately easily swayed these days. For all the politicians getting on the "hang em high" bandwagon NOW... if the general public cannot see through this ruse it says a lot about how willing to deception society has become. Especially egregious is for DA Bryce Graham who MADE the deal for prosecution of this case to suddenly have revisionist memory is quite revealing. As I mentioned earlier, the emotion that has driven this incident is unfortunately not without motives on some part to whip up the general public and distract from the actual facts of the case. Martin was given a lighter sentence with good time because the original case was weak and they needed a conviction and also the law is written to get certain criminals out of jail quicker since the Alabama prison system is overcrowded to the point of violation. BUT, money's to build new facilities are unavailable due to not having sufficient revenue in this state that would be generated by...let's say a LOTTERY. While everyone mourns the loss of this young officer, there should not be a lynching mentality displayed by any local police agency. It seems this is quite apparent in some of the posts that one police department have put on FB. It is sad and very unprofessional. This incident has brought out the best in our community, unfortunately, it has also brought out the worst. Truth and justice reside in the middle.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Glad to see your 20-something, dumbling persona is on vacation.
DeleteI haven't followed this as closely as some but I did read the state AG statement and he was of the opinion his "good time" should have been negated due to a couple of incidents the accused was involved in while incarcerated.
ReplyDelete