Thursday, August 19, 2010

Philly Cops Denied Vengeance

Philly.com reports on the sentencing of two so-called cop-killers.

LIFE. LIFE.

Those sentences yesterday were automatically handed to two convicted cop-killers/bank robbers after a Philadelphia jury failed to reach unanimous decisions on whether to send them to death row.

Eric Deshann Floyd, 35, and Levon T. Warner, 40, showed no emotion when a visibly upset Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes announced the formal sentences.

The case is a bit bizarre. First of all, you've got that strange heightened culpability because the dead guy was a police officer. I object to that, or at least I find it weird. Secondly you've got the sentencing judge verbally denigrating the defendants, calling them names and the like. It seems to me the judge should maintain better composure.

But, the most interesting thing is that these two guys didn't kill the cop. Their accomplice did that and he was shot dead at the scene. This is one of those felony murder cases like Lillo's.

The Sopranos actor, who probably didn't have quite the criminal career as Floyd and Warner, got the minimum, or close to it. These Philadelphia bad boys got right up close to the max.

What's your opinion? What can account for the disparity in sentencing? Do you think Floyd and Warner got a fair shake? Did Lillo?

Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. I don't know anything about the case but I do not believe in stiffer sentences because a victim was a government employee. Murder is murder and while I believe the penalty should be severe, the penalty should not be more severe because the victim was a perceived higher class citizen than another victim.

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