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Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Federal Crimes

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Aug 09, 2005 at 11:34:11 PM EST
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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urges a quick fix to this year's Booker decison of the Supreme Court. (By the way, if you are a new reader of TalkLeft, regular contributor TChris persuasively argued that case to the Supreme Court)

I wonder if everyone gets Gonzales' point and goal: Every federal crime should have a mandatory minimum sentence to get around the Supreme Court's decision in Booker which held the federal sentencing guidelines were advisory only. Here is the text of Gonzales' remarks. [via Sentencing Law and Policy]

Even the Washington Post disagrees with him.

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    Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Federal Crimes | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:08 PM EST
    Next step: do away with Judges. All we need are Administrators of Justice.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:08 PM EST
    'Let the Eagle Fly' and breasts covered with blue hajabs is beginning to seem like the good old days. Mandatory minimums are not minimums. They are inflicted punishments in full while they last. A whole lot of people deserve the sympathy and compassion of the court. Taking away distinctions is taking away rights. It's ethnic cleansing, or bleaching, whichever. Making the laws more blind -- what an accomplishment!

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#3)
    by Steven Sanderson on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:08 PM EST
    As our country has drifted further and further to the right, we've seen the exponential growth of vengeance and cruelty. Can it be much longer before the "values" crowd cries out for public stonings and floggings? Get your burka's out!

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#4)
    by john horse on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:08 PM EST
    So whats the mandatory minimum for deliberately fixing intelligence and lying to the American people in order to illegally invade a country? Whats the mandatory minimum for setting up a gulag system characterized by torture and abuse? Whats the mandatory minimum for outing a CIA agent? Whats the mandatory minimum for covering all this up?

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#5)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:08 PM EST
    Five weeks of paid vacation at a luxury ranch of your choosing.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#6)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:09 PM EST
    Sweet...now ordinary judges wont even have to do anything? They dont have to listen to the case? They dont have to understand what's going on? All they have to do is listen to the jury's final decision? A gumball machine could do that. Outrageous. The whole idea of manditory minimums is evidence to me that our friend, Gonzales, doesnt think the system works. Seems he doesnt have much faith in the judges out there to do their jobs and hand down appropriate sentences. Either that or he just doesnt think the prison systems are crowded enough.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#7)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:09 PM EST
    So whats the mandatory minimum for deliberately fixing intelligence and lying to the American people in order to illegally invade a country?
    Evidently, it's a Bush League Medal of Freedom.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#8)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:09 PM EST
    The judicial branch is our only true defense against tyrannical govt. Democrats and Republicans can't be trusted. Mandatory minimums further erode our democracy of checks and balances.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:10 PM EST
    Yet another reason why massive centralized power is not a good idea. The founding fathers, who insisted that the federal government should interfere in the lives of citizens as little as possible, would turn in their graves to see what today's rightwingers have done with their federal power. Mandatory minimums are the signs of plutocracy not democracy.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#10)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:12 PM EST
    I guess I dont understand the argument for manditory minimums. Can some of the conservatives out there give me an idea as to what they're supposed to accomplish?

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#11)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:12 PM EST
    Ending the conspiracy by librul Judges who are soft on crime.

    Re: Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Fede (none / 0) (#12)
    by peacrevol on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:13 PM EST
    librul Judges
    Do I detect sarcasm squeaky?

    Gonzales Urges Mandatory Minimums for All Federal Crimes | 12 comments (12 topical)