· Former Kentucky lawyer Seth Johnston, 35, was sentenced Monday to a 20-year federal prison term in a multi-faceted criminal case. Certain charges were linked to a …
· Now, one of his killers, 19-year-old John Jared Southwell, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to a report in the Virgin Islands Daily News. Southwell confessed to taking part in the crime and pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault-robbery.
By The Associated Press. COLUMBIA, S.C. — A judge upheld a 20-year prison sentence on Monday for former police officer Michael Slager in the killing of Walter Scott, a Black man who ran from a traffic stop in South Carolina, rejecting Slager’s claims his lawyer did a poor job. Slager had appealed his sentence, saying his lawyer never told him about ...
Authorities said their investigation found Scott got back up and was shot from a distance of about 15 feet as he ran from the officer.
Judge upholds 20-year sentence for former South Carolina officer who killed Black man. Former police officer Michael Slager, who fatally shot Walter Scott in the back in 2015, had appealed and claimed his lawyer did a poor job.
Savage said in court papers as part of Slager’s appeal that he did not tell the ex-officer about the potential plea deal offered eight months before because of a conversation he had with Norton during a private meeting about public funding for Slager’s defense where the judge said this “is not a murder case.”.
If a defendant has no criminal record and mitigating circumstances justify a lenient sentence, the judge might impose a prison sentence of five years and a $5,000 fine. On the other hand, if the defendant has a long history of violent crimes and shows no remorse, the judge could impose the maximum 20-year sentence.
Rule 32 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure grants both the defendant and defense counsel the right to speak to the court before a sentence is imposed. As can be expected, the prosecutor's comments will tend to highlight aggravating factors in the crime and past criminal behavior on the part of the defendant.
No one, not even defense counsel, may be able to speak as persuasively as the person facing the sentence. Thus, defendants also have a right to speak on their own behalf before the judge imposes the sentence. This is known as the defendant's right of allocution.
It used to be that the victim played a minimal role in a criminal prosecution. The victim's only job, if any, was to testify at trial about the circumstances of the offense. Now victims participate more, from the beginning, when they are involved in prosecutors' pretrial investigations, to later, when they give statements in court to the judge during sentencing hearings.
This statement may include the victim's version of the offense and detail any physical, psychological, or monetary damage the victim suffered as a result of the crime.