It's All In the Headline

Signed on to my computer today, and as usual my homepage came up with Yahoo News. One of the headlines? "Girls sentenced to life for stealing $11 to get parole."

How horrible that these girls were sentenced to life for stealing a measly $11! I think. They must have been black. Terrible civil rights injustice!

Then you read the article. The point is not that they stole $11, but how they went about it. They assisted 3 other men to hit their two victims in the head with a shotgun. The fact that their victim only had $11 in his pocket doesn't make it a minor crime! (Indeed, you might think that makes it even worse. These guys were willing to kill someone [for if 3 people successively hit someone in the head
with a shotgun, do you really expect him to survive?] for a measly $11. That's the value they put on their victims' lives. $11.)

JACKSON, Miss. – For 16 years, sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott have shared a life behind bars for their part in an $11 armed robbery. To share freedom, they must also share a kidney.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour suspended the sisters' life sentences on Wednesday, but 36-year-old Gladys Scott's release is contingent on her giving a kidney to Jamie, her 38-year-old sister, who requires daily dialysis.

The sisters were convicted in 1994 of leading two men into an ambush in central Mississippi the year before. Three teenagers hit each man in the head with a shotgun and took their wallets — making off with only $11, court records said.

Jamie and Gladys Scott were each convicted of two counts of armed robbery and sentenced to two life sentences.

"I think it's a victory," said the sisters' attorney, Chokwe Lumumba. "I talked to Gladys and she's elated about the news. I'm sure Jamie is, too."

Civil rights advocates have for years called for their release, saying the sentences were excessive. Those demands gained traction when Barbour asked the Mississippi Parole Board to take another look at the case.

I wonder if the victim thought their sentences were excessive?

This case will certainly launch an interesting precedent. Armed robbers can do as much violence as they like to their victim, short of actually killing them, and as long as its only for less than $11or so, they'll get off with a slap on the wrist, apparently.