Judge Frees Homeless Man Serving Life Sentence for Stealing Food

[mike r]

Source: KTLA News

A prisoner serving 25 years to life for breaking into a Los Angeles church food bank will soon be a free man. A judge on Monday ordered the release of Gregory Taylor, who was sentenced in 1997 under California's three-strikes law.

Taylor cried as the judge amended the potential life term to eight years and the courtroom erupted in applause. The district attorney did not oppose the petition presented by the Stanford Law Project. He will be released within two days.

Taylor was arrested in July 1997 after being caught trying to pry open a screen over the kitchen door of a Los Angeles church. He said he was trying to get something to eat. A priest testified that Taylor had often been given food at the church and had sometimes been allowed to sleep there.

He was convicted of burglary for using a board to reach inside the church in an attempt to commit theft. A prosecutor said Taylor may have been trying to steal valuable items such as chalices and alms boxes. Taylor's attorney argued the crime was misdemeanor trespassing because Taylor thought he had the right to take food. Because of two prior robbery convictions in the 1980s, the burglary was Taylor's third strike under California sentencing laws, requiring a sentence of 25 years to life...

Read more: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-church-food-theif,0,2467609.story

[Myrina]

1. ... not sure how i feel about this ...

... released to where? Homelessness and starvation? At least in lockup, he had food. :shrug:

There's just something so wrong about the entire paradigm.

[RandomThoughts]

5. That is the arguement of a slave holder also.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RandomThoughts]

21. Not at all, it is the exact same comment.

You said that if he is in jail at least he has food.
A slave holder says, at least the slaves are fed.

In both cases the assumption is they could not survive without the slavery or imprisonment. It is the arguement made for slavery. You might not have meant it that way, but it is true.

Also in both cases that concept can miss the idea that to solve that problem is not to think people need slavery or imprisonment, but opportunity for work and such. If he stole food because he was hungry.

[LanternWaste]

26. Luckily for us...

Luckily for us, an argument used in one context may take on an entirely different level of ethical responsibility when used in another, wholly unrelated argument.

[ck4829]

7. He's probably going to have a parole officer to make sure he finds a home and a job

[saigon68]

25. Anatole France

The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Anatole France

[No Elephants]

27. If so, many law abiding Americans will begin demanding parole officers.

[valerief]

16. Yeah, but now he's free to run away to a civilized country. If he can across the Atlantic. nt

[Taverner]

2. Why do I suddenly think of Victor Hugo?

[rusty quoin]

8. That's what I thought of too.

[1monster]

13. If there's another way to go

I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

(from WHAT HAVE I DONE, LES MISERABLES)

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Whatta a great country we've got here.

:patriot: :puke:

[Stuart G]

20. This story makes me sick too

:puke: Great county indeed

[izquierdista]

4. Why do I think he will be back soon?

Where is he going to eat and sleep next week? next month?

[Sanity Claws]

6. This makes me so sad

The state would prefer to spend money to imprison the man for life but not to give him food and shelter while on the outside. Or give him the skills or whatever needed to earn it on his own.
I am glad that the man considers his release such good news that he wept.

[1monster]

15. There was another California case I remember. A man took a piece of pizza

at a picnic and was also sentenced to 25 to life.

A mouthful of bread, indeed.

People were imprisoned for exceedingly petty theft. That piece of pizza cost about 50 cents at the time.

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. It was like that in England in the 1700s. I remember hearing a very

sad, absolutely haunting song on the radio - named The Three-Legged Stool or some such, I think - about a young mother with a toddler, hanged for stealing a piece of lace from a shop. Not so different from 25 yrs to life for a piece of pizza. I think the stool was taken from under her when she was hanged. Of course, there was also deportation to Australia for such terrible crimes.

I don't believe lynchings were ever part of our history - maybe pre-history. America's future trajectory towards civilisation reminds me of the plight of the Englishman lost in the Irish countryside, who asked a local the way to such and a place. "Well", came the reply, "If I wanted to go to bla bla, I wouldn't start from here." An old joke, you probably know.

By the way, the fact that some of us like Irish jokes, signifies absolutely nothing negative. We know that the Irish are more than our equals. That was a finding of a commission of the EU, regarding intelligence and employability. But the Irish are the most wonderfully colourful people. I was saying to my wife the other day, "Where else in the world would you find race-tracks with names like, "Fairyhouse" and "Leopardstown?" And, by the way, apparently, the derivation of The Curragh, the premier race track in Ireland is from the Irish for "The Running Horse'.

[Lightning Count]

9. California's 3 strike rule. nt

[Frisbee]

10. I'm guessing there's a prosecutor who's really pissed...

that his conviction rate just went down by 1/10%.

[John Q. Citizen]

18. The conviction stands. The punishment is altered.

[pinto]

11. The dark underbelly of 3 strikes. Good judicial call. n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

12. And then on the other side of the coin, how long was Kenny Boy...

locked up for stealing who knows how much.

How Long were the neocons locked up for torture and murder.

I'll bet Gregory Taylor won't get a multi-million dollar bonus for stealing like the Goldman Goons and their crooked partners/bandits on Wall Street.

The judge that put the guy away for stealing something to eat, needs to do the rest of the guys time behind bars.

[damntexdem]

14. "At last, Val Jean, we see each other plain."

Leave it to the U.S. to recreate Les Miserables in the 20th/21st Centuries.

[supernova]

23. GMTA

:D

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. Our three strikes law is BULLSHIT.

Especially when those three strikes involves non-violent crimes. :mad: I have opposed this law since the begining and hope someone has the courage to overturn the damned thing.

[Ignis]

24. Exactly.

It would be bullshit to begin with, but conflating violent crimes with crimes against property it just freakin' nuts.

[supernova]

22. Jean Val Jean lives!

[Wednesdays]

29. Jean Valjean

"...Nineteen years. In October, 1815, he was released; he had entered there in 1796, for having broken a pane of glass and taken a loaf of bread."

-- Les Misérables, Vol. 1, Book 2, Chapter 6.