Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

What's the appropriate sentence for official corruption?

By Gritsforbreakfast

Rooting out corrupt law enforcement would do more IMO to stymie drug cartel smuggling activity than all the interdiction tactics we can muster, so on one hand I'm glad to see the prosecution of a DPS crime lab technician and his cohorts this week in Houston for stealing 26 kilos of cocaine from the evidence locker. The technician was sentenced to 45 years in prison (out of a possible range of 5-99).One Chron reader declared that "Whenever a public safety employee betrays the public trust they can and should receive a harsher sentence." That's true. But we see drug sentences that long for civilians, too, so it's not the official corruption that explains it. Even if the 31-year old lab technician is paroled after half his sentence, it will cost taxpayers $360,000 (in present-day dollars @$16K per year) to incarcerate him that long...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).