Paul Pelosi attacked in home invasion

#1,952
#1,952
LouderVol said:
is any crime with a congress person's home (not in DC) automatically a federal crime?

really is a world of laws for thee but not for me.
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He was charged with “assault upon an immediate family member of a U.S. official with the intent to retaliate against the official on account of the performance of official duties” and “attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official on account of the performance of official duties.”
 
#1,956
#1,956
Apparently the judge forgot to give DePape the opportunity to make an allocution and the prosecution filed asking him to reopen the sentencing and the defense filed a notice of appeal to try to remove the case to the circuit court. Might not be the last we’ve heard from David DePape, literally and figuratively.
 
#1,957
#1,957
RockyTop85 said:
Apparently the judge forgot to give DePape the opportunity to make an allocution and the prosecution filed asking him to reopen the sentencing and the defense filed a notice of appeal to try to remove the case to the circuit court. Might not be the last we’ve heard from David DePape, literally and figuratively.
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you think same/similar result just on a different date?
 
#1,960
#1,960
LouderVol said:
you think same/similar result just on a different date?
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It may take a pretty convoluted path. Generally notice of appeal ends the jurisdiction of the trial court, so if it has to go to the circuit court it may get delayed for a while, maybe past the election.

Otherwise, probably the same result, but honestly him speaking at his sentencing might be worse for him. He testified at trial so maybe any damage he would do is already baked in.

He’s still got pending state charges with a possible life sentence (I assume some kind of 3 strikes thing?). It seems like he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison one way or the other.
 
#1,961
#1,961
RockyTop85 said:
It may take a pretty convoluted path. Generally notice of appeal ends the jurisdiction of the trial court, so if it has to go to the circuit court it may get delayed for a while, maybe past the election.

Otherwise, probably the same result, but honestly him speaking at his sentencing might be worse for him. He testified at trial so maybe any damage he would do is already baked in.

He’s still got pending state charges with a possible life sentence (I assume some kind of 3 strikes thing?). It seems like he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison one way or the other.
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was this the idiot that decided to represent himself?

Seems like I remember some relatively high profile case the defendant was a bit crazy and wanted to represent themselves. seems like the judge warned them and they still said no lawyer.

*edit nvm, went back and looked at the last page, seems like he has a lawyer*
 
#1,962
#1,962
RockyTop85 said:
It may take a pretty convoluted path. Generally notice of appeal ends the jurisdiction of the trial court, so if it has to go to the circuit court it may get delayed for a while, maybe past the election.

Otherwise, probably the same result, but honestly him speaking at his sentencing might be worse for him. He testified at trial so maybe any damage he would do is already baked in.

He’s still got pending state charges with a possible life sentence (I assume some kind of 3 strikes thing?). It seems like he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison one way or the other.
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He probably should. He is a danger to society
 
#1,963
#1,963
Sea Ray said:
He probably should. He is a danger to society
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I agree. Take the politics out of it and 30 years (with over 25 year parole eligibility date) for breaking into someone’s home to kidnap their wife and viciously assaulting him with a hammer seems pretty reasonable from the defendant’s perspective. Maybe on the low side to the rest of us.
 
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#1,965
#1,965
RockyTop85 said:
I agree. Take the politics out of it and 30 years (with over 25 year parole eligibility date) for breaking into someone’s home to kidnap their wife and viciously assaulting him with a hammer seems pretty reasonable from the defendant’s perspective. Maybe on the low side to the rest of us.
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I get it, and I'm with you. But the issue i have is all over the country equally dangerous people....... Sometimes even more dangerous, are just run though the turnstiles of our system until they actually kill someone.

I guess I just see this as case of justice for me...... Not for thee........kind of situation. This guy would be remanded to a mental facility if it happened to you or I...... But then again we don't matter.
 
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#1,967
#1,967
RockyTop85 said:
I agree. Take the politics out of it and 30 years (with over 25 year parole eligibility date) for breaking into someone’s home to kidnap their wife and viciously assaulting him with a hammer seems pretty reasonable from the defendant’s perspective. Maybe on the low side to the rest of us.
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It is inconsistent with the vast majority of other penalties as of late with these activist judges though.
 
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#1,968
#1,968
SpaceCoastVol said:
It is inconsistent with the vast majority of other penalties as of late with these activist judges though.
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Federal Court vs State Court.

I believe the point would be better made if a California State Court, with a George Gascon or Chesa Boudin prosecuting, had sentenced this wackadoodle to 30 years.
 
#1,969
#1,969

Idk.

Violent home invasions tend to get long sentences even in state courts, even when the victims aren’t the speaker of the house. The guy in the case above got 60 years. His exposure was probably greater than DePape’s would be based on criminal history and because he had mandatory consecutive sentences for use of a firearm. But the judge also used his discretion to make one of the 30 year sentences consecutive. And nobody got a fractured skull.

In Tennessee, what happened to Paul Pelosi would potentially be especially aggravated kidnapping (more likely under TN law than it sounds on its face). That would carry a minimum of 15 years mandatory jail time at 100%. There is at least one other potential A felony (attempted murder) and 2 other solid B felonies (especially aggravated burglary, attempted kidnapping of Nancy). So 0-2 A felonies and 2-3 B felonies.

Given his list of additional intended targets, statements to police, trial testimony, and the call to a news station, I think it’s unlikely that he wouldn’t get at least one consecutive sentence.*

I don’t think he gets consecutive sentences and then gets sentenced in the bottom of the range. So the same 30 years is probably on the low end of expectation if he gets convicted of the kidnapping OR attempted 1st degree murder.

* Tennessee law allows for consecutive sentences when an offender is “a dangerous offender whose behavior indicates little or no regard for human life and no hesitation about committing a crime in which the risk to human life is high.” Been a long time since I’ve looked at how this is applied but it seems like an option.
 
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#1,970
#1,970
The problem with state courts is a matter of resources.

States are basically obliged to prosecute everything. I’m not going to say it’s entirely created by drug laws but those are easy felonies to point to as things that are clogging up the system with minimal benefit.

Then there are only so many prosecutors and even fewer who are smart enough to dump dumb cases with lowball offers or dismissals. And even fewer than that who are good in trial.

Even if every prosecutor was smart enough to recognize and low ball dumb cases to maximize time for the serious cases, you’d still end up with tons of addicts on probation and that ultimately results in a lot of addicts in prison for violating probation. So you end up with these low parole eligibility percentages to keep from having to build and staff more prisons.

Another problem with taking every case is that your victims and witnesses aren’t always reliable. You end up being unable to track people down or their stories change over time. Cases that you want to prosecute harshly often end up getting better plea offers that reflect the prosecutor’s assessment that they might lose at trial because of their victim/witnesses.

Federal government has vastly more monetary resources and generally selects the serious, winnable cases. So they prosecute a fraction of a fraction of what state courts handle.

In my opinion, a case like this one would get assigned to a serious prosecutor and would get serious attention, especially after he called the news station and was basically “I’m sorry I didn’t do more.”
 
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