Prior to getting into the purpose of this website and
why we are all here, I pulled from the media some
examples of what has happened when the actions of
one person have lead to the untimely demise of another. Some
of the deaths have been truly accidental, others
have been due to bad judgment or bad choices, and still other
deaths have been the result of an intentional act,
where one person actively participated in another's death.
Many of you may have read the recent story of a
TV star who was sentenced in the death of a teenager.
Though Lane Garrison could have gone to prison for
a
maximum of six years, he received a sentence of
three years and four months for the drunk driving
accident that killed a seventeen year old high
school student.
Another man in Chicago,
John Homatas, was
sentenced to twelve years
for a drunk driving accident that killed three
people.
19 year old Edith Delgado killed three people,
including two members of the Tongan royal family
(the prince and princess), while racing her SUV on a
California highway and
was sentenced to two years in prison.
Prosecutor Aaron Fitzgerald said "The sentence of
two years reflects the seriousness of the offense.
In this case, we have the deaths of three perfectly
innocent victims."
Mary Winkler,
convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting
death of her husband,
could have faced a maximum of six years in jail but
was sentenced to just three, but she will be out on
probation after serving just seven months.
A New Jersey man, Jonathan Nyce was sentenced to
eight years in prison for murdering his wife
Michelle. He beat
her to death and then tried to make it look like she
had died in a car accident, He is eligible for
parole in five years.
Then there are those who have been involved in the
death of a fellow human being and received only
probation as punishment:
In Texas a
skinhead received ten years probation in the
shooting death of a black man
because, as one of the jurors put it, "We just felt
like this might be a man who might be able to turn
his life around".
Kimberly Richardson plead guilty to second-degree
murder because of her involvement in the killing of
Robert Owens and
received ten years probation.
On March 8, 2007
George Robert Chaney was convicted of second degree
murder for the second time (the first being in 1980)
and was
sentenced to 30 years, with 28 years, 8 months and
10 days suspended. Translation = probation.
And
my last example the pop singer Brandy. In
December 2006 Brandy was involved in a car accident
which resulted in the death of another person. For
Brandy's part, there was/is no evidence of drugs or
alcohol and when all is said and done, probation is
the expected outcome.
So lets do the math, in the above cases
there are a total of 12 dead people, the
sentencing for all cases is 28 years, so that comes
out to a sentence of 2.3 years per death. That is by
no means what was served, not by a long shot, many
of these people were released on probation long
before the full sentence (if you can call 2.3 years
a full sentence) was served.
Now, on to the particulars of the case involving
Lance Persson.
But before I do, let me say this, this website is
not about guilt or innocence, at no time has Lance
(or his supporters) claimed he was framed, the facts
are what they are. Lance sold drugs to a person who
later died, it is unclear how much the drugs
contributed to that death, or how much
responsibility the victim had in his own demise.
Here are the facts of that fateful day, what
transpired and the events that led to the
unfortunate death of one person, while another
spends most of his adult life behind bars.
In November of 1992 Lance started selling small
amounts of cocaine to "friends" and
"associates", not as a money making
proposition, but as a means of supporting and
feeding his own
drug addiction.
On the evening of March 5th 1993 Lance sold 2 grams
of cocaine and 1/4 gram of heroin to one of those
friends, Michael Corey. Like Lance, Michael had a
long history of drug addiction and abuse.
During March 5th and 6th Michael Corey was
"partying" which consisted of consuming
very large quantities (based on toxically reports)
of alcohol, marijuana, valium, cocaine, and heroin.
That day (according to court transcripts) Michael
Corey was purchasing drugs from multiple sources
(not just Lance).
After seeing Lance, Michael and his friends spent
that evening (March 5th) in a motel room doing drugs,
and despite
getting sick (to the point of having a fever and vomiting) they
continued to free-based cocaine, smoke pot, take
valium, and drinking large quantities of beer.
Despite the fact that he had been vomiting and
running a fever for hours, when Michael's last
friend left at 1am on March 6th, he (Michael Corey)
continued to take drugs. It was sometime between his
last friend leaving and 5am Michael Corey Died.
Later that same day Lance Persson was arrested for
contributing to the death of Michael Corey.
Some of the facts as they are laid out in the court transcripts:
Defense: "What happened to this young man,
Michael Corey, is that he mixed drugs not only from
my client, but from other sources when he became ill
and stated to the witness in the case "I'm boiling
up". Instead of stopping his use of drugs or calling
a doctor or an ambulance, or whatever, he continued
to use cocaine, valium, alcohol. ...even in light of
the fact that my client accepts responsibility for
distributing drugs, the death could perhaps have
been prevented by reasonable cause on the part of
the victim by stopping use, because even after all
this, the young man had thrown up consistently, had
a fever, and after the only witness left, Michael
Corey consumed additional amounts of cocaine and
heroin. He continued to use drugs despite severe
warnings that there was something wrong."
Judge: "what would be the governments reaction
to that?"
Prosecutor: "I guess our reaction is that if
the offense behavior is viewed the way suggested, we
think it is a valid argument"
Judge: "Is that supported in the presentencing
report...."
Prosecutor: "There is indication all of that
occurred..."
Judge: "I remember at the time I read this, it
was pretty remarkable"
Prosecutor: "Michael Corey was in a weakend
state because of his ingestion of other drugs"
(drugs he did not receive from lance).
Judge: "Mr. Corey had pursued erratically an
unreasonable course of conduct in the use of drugs
and alcohol that night..."
Judge: "you are saying additional ingestion of
other substances than those sold him by the
defendant (Lance) provoked his death..."
Prosecutor: "That's correct..."
Though it was an established fact that Michael Corey had
obtained drugs from multiple people, Lance was the
only person ever charged.
On January 10th 1995 Lance Persson was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. He had been in jail
since his arrest in 1993.
Since his conviction, the law under which lance was
found guilty and sentenced has since been found to
be un-constitutional by the United States Supreme
Court, but the ruling was not applied retroactively.
Which means Lance remains incarcerated based on a
law that was not legal and is no longer on the books.
When asked why Lance (and others who were convicted
under this law) were not going to be released an
attorney replied "do you know how much work
that would be?".
So Lance remains unfairly confined in prison because
it would be "to much work" to do the
right thing, the fair thing.
Is that the American way?
