Lawyer for Steubenville rapist to appeal conviction

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:44:00 +0000

During a Tuesday appearance on "Piers Morgan Tonight," Walter Madison, the attorney for Ma'lik Richmond, explained he would appeal Richmond's rape conviction because his client's brain "wasn't fully developed" when he raped a 16-year-old girl.

According to Madison (emphasis mind):

I don't believe that a person at 75 years old should have to explain for something they did at 16 when scientific evidence would support your brain isn't fully developed ... when evidence in the case would suggest that you were under the influence ...

We have the right to appeal and that is a right we will be exercising.

This is from the same lawyer who had earlier argued that Richmond's 16-year-old victim -- who was nearly unconscious during most of the assault -- had "consented" to sex with his client and Trent Mays.

As Alexander Abad-Santons at the Atlantic Wire notes, neuroscientists have found that teenagers have "underdeveloped decision processing centers," but researchers in that study used their findings to advocate for leniency in sentencing for juvenile offenders -- not a get out of jail free card for teenage rapists.

California votes to reform “Three Strikes”

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:54:00 +0000

Yesterday California voted overwhelmingly to soften the “Three Strikes” law, which imposed 25-to-life sentences for minor drug law violations and other nonviolent crimes if they were third “strikes” after two “serious or violent” offenses. The reform measure, Proposition 36, will ensure that life sentences can now only be inflicted when the third felony is also “serious or violent.” California was the only state that punished minor crimes with life sentences, and the law has often been challenged as a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. “Locking up people for life whose only recent offense was a minor violation of the state’s drug laws never made sense in terms of public safety, finance or morality," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "California at last is rejoining the civilized world.”

Salon.com > Prison Reform

Lawyer for Steubenville rapist to appeal conviction

California votes to reform “Three Strikes”