>From Left Link - Australia's Broad Left mailing list. comradely, Kim B ______________________ > Dear LeftLinkers > > Thought this might interest you in the context of mandatory sentencing. In > this case it appears that bringing a felony charge against Kenneth Payne was > a choice made by the DA and that the 16 year sentence was a choice made by > the judge (rather than mandated), but it's a classic example of what can > happen in an out-of-control system in which the punishments rarely (if ever) > fit the crime. > > I highly recommend this list : one email once a week and always interesting > and well-written. > Ciao > elizabeth > > Sixteen Years for a Snickers Bar > By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > Last week, a Texas jury recommended that Kenneth Payne, 29, spend 16 > years in jail. > > Payne's crime? Stealing a Snickers bar from a Tyler, Texas grocery > store on December 17, 1999. > > When Smith county Assistant District Attorney Jodi Brown was asked by > the Associated Press how she could justify 16 years for the theft of a > Snickers bar, Brown replied "It was a king size." > > A king size Snickers bar it was. Retail price: $1. > > In Texas, if you steal property worth less than $500, it's a misdemeanor > punishable by a fine of $500 with no jail time. The case was brought as a > felony because Payne was a habitual offender. He had ten previous > convictions -- including one for stealing a bag of Oreo cookies -- and had > spent seven years in Texas prisons. When he shoved the king sized Snickers > bar down his pants he was on parole for felony theft. > > Still, the guy was a petty thief -- he stole cookies and candy bars. > > Compare Kenneth Payne's plight to those of a group of white-collar and > corporate criminals who also were sentenced this month. > > Hoffman-LaRoche Ltd. pled guilty for their roles in an international > conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition in the vitamin industry > -- what the Justice Department calls perhaps the largest criminal > antitrust conspiracy in history. The prison terms: four months, three > and one-half months, three months and three months. (The four executives > were also fined anywhere from $75,000 to $350,000). > > Also this month, three cruise line employees were sentenced for their role > in dumping pollution into the Alaskan Inland Passage from a Holland > America cruise ship. The three employees were each sentenced to two years > unsupervised probation and fined $10,000. > > These are not unusual sentences for white-collar criminals. In fact, it is > unusual to see a white-collar criminal do time. > > So, how can it be that Kenneth Payne is doing 16 years for stealing a one > dollar Snickers bar while the former executives of some of the world's > largest corporations get off with a few months in prison -- after being > convicted of a crime that cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars? > > It's like Richard Pryor said -- in our country -- justice means "just > us" -- regular folks -- and not them -- the people who call the shots -- > who end up in the slammer. > > This double standard permeates every aspect of our criminal justice > system. > > The other day, for example, we were listening to National Public Radio, > and up popped a debate about whether felons should be allowed to > participate in a democracy. > > On one side of the debate was Mark Mauer of the Sentencing Project. Mauer > pointed out that in 46 states, you can't vote if you are in prison. In 16 > states, if you were convicted of a felony -- even if you get out of prison > -- you are disenfranchised for life. Mauer estimated that 13 percent of > adult black men cannot vote as a result of a felony conviction right now. > > On the NPR show, Roger Clegg, an attorney with the right-leaning and the > slightly misnamed Center for Equal Opportunity (Linda Chavez' think tank), > made the argument that felons shouldn't be allowed to vote. "If you aren't > willing to play by the rules, then you shouldn't have a say in making the > rules," Clegg said. > > "And people who have been convicted of felonies, which are by definition > serious crimes, shouldn't be given a role in deciding how the government > should be run," Clegg said. > > After hearing this, we called up Clegg to ask what he thought about > banning corporate criminals -- like BASF and Hoffman LaRoche, who had > engaged in perhaps the most egregious criminal antitrust conspiracy in > history -- from "deciding how the government should be run." (Corporations > of course don't vote, but they do give money to elect candidates, they > lobby legislators and law enforcement officials, and they mold public > opinion through their public relations efforts.) > > Gone was Clegg's unwavering absolutism. > > After much humming and hawing, Clegg admitted that "it makes sense to > limit the political role of corporations when they have shown that they > are not worthy of trust." But he quickly added that "because individuals > and corporations are fundamentally different, you can't just apply the > rules equally." Clegg questioned whether the First Amendment would allow > prosecutors to strip corporations of their "rights" to influence how the > government should be run. Clegg, of course, raised no such question when > it came to stripping individual felons of such "rights." > > What about the death penalty? In a new book, Actual Innocence: Five Days > to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted (Doubleday, > 2000), Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, report that in the 24 years > since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court, about 620 > individuals have been put to death -- but 87 condemned persons had their > convictions vacated by exonerating evidence. > > Most likely, innocent lives have been taken. All this while really big > recidivist corporate criminals like Exxon, Royal Caribbean, Rockwell > International, Warner Lambert, Teledyne, and United Technologies -- > criminals truly deserving of the corporate death penalty, get away with > slap on the wrist fines. > > Bottom line: big corporations and white-collar criminals are getting away > with it, while the political and media elites pull the wool over our eyes. > > Think of that next time you pick up a Snickers bar. > > > Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime > Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based > Multinational Monitor. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors of Corporate > Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, > Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org) > > (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > _______________________________________________ > > Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber > and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or > repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on > a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us > ([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > > Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve > [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail > message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text: subscribe > > Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at > <http://www.corporatepredators.org>. > > Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. 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