IlliniBoard > Man arrested for turning in a gun to the police.

JPM

Nov 12 2009, 04:29 PM

QUOTE

A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

Link

ChainsawFan

Nov 12 2009, 07:41 PM

QUOTE (JPM @ Nov 12 2009, 05:29 PM)

Link

Very sad. Another example of how ridiculous mandatory minimum sentences can be. If anything warranted a guilty verdict and a slap on the wrist, this would be it.

autolykos

Nov 12 2009, 08:03 PM

QUOTE (ChainsawFan @ Nov 12 2009, 07:41 PM)

Very sad. Another example of how ridiculous mandatory minimum sentences can be. If anything warranted a guilty verdict and a slap on the wrist, this would be it.

So much for the British legal tradition abhoring strict liability crimes. The idea that a strict liability crime contains a mandatory 5 year prison sentence is offensive to hundreds of years of British jurisprudence.

MiniDitka

Nov 12 2009, 09:15 PM

QUOTE (autolykos @ Nov 12 2009, 08:03 PM)

So much for the British legal tradition abhoring strict liability crimes. The idea that a strict liability crime contains a mandatory 5 year prison sentence is offensive to hundreds of years of British jurisprudence.

Right. And I'm no expert on the British legal system, but in America we have something called "prosecutorial discretion." As in the prosecutor isn't required to bring charges, even if a crime has technically been committed. If prosecutorial discretion has any place, it should be exercised in this situation.

Illinimac

Nov 20 2009, 01:24 PM

QUOTE (MiniDitka @ Nov 12 2009, 10:15 PM)

Right. And I'm no expert on the British legal system, but in America we have something called "prosecutorial discretion." As in the prosecutor isn't required to bring charges, even if a crime has technically been committed. If prosecutorial discretion has any place, it should be exercised in this situation.

I'm no expert either, but I know they don't have a Bill of Rights. Some posters here could ponder that the next time they whine about lawyers getting people off on technicalities such as the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. This guy's only hope is executive clemency; they haven't abolished that in Britain, have they?