Victimless crime
Interesting gun case in MA:
The Supreme Judicial Court yesterday ruled that illegal gun possession is a “passive and victimless crime” and that those charged with having illicit firearms cannot be held without bail as a danger to society.
In a 4-to-1 ruling, the state’s highest court rejected the law enforcement strategy of Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter to cut down on gun violence by seeking pretrial detention for every person charged with illegal gun possession in his jurisdiction, which includes New Bedford.
Good.
May 5th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Well, there is illegal gun possession and there is illegal gun possession, especially in MA.
My feeling is that anyone with a gun was arrested whenever possible, and held without bail until a trial could determine if the person holding the gun was acting legally or not. That would be the major stupid on the part of the DA, as it is prosecutorial misconduct to ignore evidence that exculpates the person charged.
If he was trying to keep, say, the liquor store robber in jail before trial without bail and using the fact that a gun was involved as a reason, well, that makes more sense.
I hope the additional penalties for committing crimes with a gun are not ignored by the prosecutor or judges due to this ruling (as they reportedly are, often, in MA per No Looking Backward’s blog, massbackwards.com).
May 5th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Thankfully this atrocious act by the DA was struck down. I would wager that many of those “criminals” should now file a class-action lawsuit against the county for their acts of tyranny.