It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by Vitchilo
This story is just insane. Stupid ``mandatory minimum sentences`` and stupid jurors strike again.
Are severe mandatory minimums for certain gun crimes especially problematic after Heller?
What happened :
In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm “and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”... This [ruling] must ring awfully hollow to Orville Lee Wollard who, two years ago tomorrow was sentenced to two decades in a Florida prison for protecting his family with a firearm.
On a spring morning in 2008, Wollard got a panicked call from his wife. The teenage boyfriend who had been beating up his 15-year old daughter was back at their house causing trouble. Wollard rushed home and found the boy on the porch and his daughter with a black eye. Wollard told the boy to leave, but instead, the boy attacked him, ripping out stitches from Wollard’s recent surgery, and then ran off with Wollard’s daughter. When the two returned several hours later, the boyfriend began shoving Orville’s daughter around the Wollards’ home. Wollard’s wife and eldest daughter screamed for him to do something. Wollard was frightened for his daughter’s and his family’s safety.
He grabbed his legally registered pistol and confronted the boy, again asking him to leave. The boy stopped assaulting Wollard’s daughter. He smiled, punched a hole in the wall, and began moving toward Wollard. Wollard, who had had firearms training as a former member of the auxiliary police force, aimed a bullet into the wall next to the boyfriend to scare him. No one was hurt, and the boy finally left. That is where this story should have ended, but it didn’t.
What's crazy :
Several weeks later, the abusive boy called the police to report Wollard for aggravated assault, and Wollard was arrested. Orville Wollard did not think he had committed a crime by protecting his family. He rejected a plea deal that would have given him probation and a felony record and instead took his case to court. Prosecutors charged Wollard with various crimes, including shooting into a dwelling (his own house), child abuse (because the boy was under 18) and aggravated assault with a weapon. A jury convicted Wollard of possessing and discharging a firearm, which triggered Florida’s mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated assault with a weapon. Wollard was sentenced to the mandatory prison term of 20 years without parole.
Even the judge thought it was BS.
At sentencing, the judge said, “This [sentence] is obviously excessive … if it weren’t for the mandatory minimum … I would use my discretion and impose some separate sentence, having taken into consideration the circumstances of the event.”
Stupid jurors :
Wollard is right.... To be clear, a jury found Wollard guilty. Jurors apparently did not believe he acted in self-defense..... Whether this jury reached the correct conclusion is open to debate.
One good guy in jail for 20 years because of some stupid politicians and stupid voters who wanted ``mandatory minimum sentences`` to ``not be soft on crime``...
Originally posted by neo96there is no justice in this world in a country that is suppose to have justice and liberty for all.
Originally posted by kro32
He shoulda just called the cops. Not like he didn't have enough time to hit 911.
I agree he shouldn't be in jail or anything and this is an example of how firearms usually cause more problems than they solve. Had he not had a weapon he would have handled the situation differently (like calling the cops) but instead his first instinct was to grab his firearm.
Pulling a gun on a kid should be an absolute last resort and this was not the case here otherwise he would have shot him dead.
Originally posted by SpookyFox
Stupid yanks. If he's given the boy an old fasioned beat down with his fists he'd have been fine, but no, he had to pull out a gun. Why can't americans be real men and fight like men, they are wimps who hide behind guns and shoot at 16 year old kids.edit on 13-6-2011 by SpookyFox because: (no reason given)