18 Months-4 Years for Misdemeanor Resisting Arrest. Gee, That's Fair!

Judge Garfunkel

A New York man was sentenced to 18 months to 4 years in the State Penitentiary by a New Hamsphire judge for a misdemeanor offense of resisting arrest.  This is the Union-Leader's account: 

A Rochester, N.Y., man convicted last week of misdemeanor assault on a Manchester police officer and resisting arrest could spend four years in prison under a state law that allows extended sentencing for minor crimes.

Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Garfunkel (pic) on June 29 ordered Dominic Stanin, 44, serve 18 months to four years in state prison on a resisting arrest conviction. The judge also imposed a 2- to 4-year suspended sentence on the simple assault conviction. The offenses occurred May 19, 2010.

A misdemeanor conviction carries a maximum 12-month term in the county house of correction and up to $2,000 in fines.  However, state law allows the court to impose up to 2- to 5-year state prison terms if an individual has two prior convictions and served sentences exceeding one year, Hillsborough County Attorney Dennis C. Hogan said in a statement Tuesday.

Stanin served terms exceeding one year for three prior New York convictions, Hogan said. The convictions were for possession of stolen property, robbery and criminal mischief, he added.

A Hillsborough County jury convicted Stanin in May of pushing Manchester police Sgt. Jamie Gallant with his hand and resisting arrest, Hogan said.

It costs at least $25,949 a year to keep an inmate in prison in New Hampshre according to the National Institute of Corrections.
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Neat factoid at the end of this story.  Puts it in perspective.

Robber gets 1,948 Years In Prison

That's right folks, you are not reading a typo (and I think you've been reading Bad Laywer long enought to know that I know my typos.)  Read Ruby Gonzalez's account from the San Gabriel Valley News and let's discuss:

Authorities on Monday threw the book at a 35-year-old serial bank robber dubbed the "Mickey Mouse Bandit," sentencing him to 1,948 years in prison.  Anthony Richard Cuellar was convicted by a jury last year of 43 counts of robbery stemming from one nail salon robbery and eight bank heists in 2007, including a Wells Fargo branch in San Marino.  The 35-year-old Cuellar, who has two prior robbery convictions, was sentenced Monday at Alhambra Superior Court to 1,948 years to life.

'I don't recall of a sentence where a defendant has received that many years,' said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman with the District Attorney's Office. 'It's up there.' Alhambra Superior Court Judge Laura Priver and Cuellar's attorney, Ruben Garcia, declined comment on the case. The longest prison sentence handed down by a U.S court was 10,000 years. It was given to Dudley Wayne Kyzer, who killed his wife in 1981 in Alabama. He was also sentenced to life for slaying his mother-in-law and a college student.

The FBI gave Cuellar his moniker because he wore a hat with a Mickey Mouse logo in one of the robberies."
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Well, OK, this guy is a pretty bad thief, but sentences that enter the realm of science fiction are beyond bizarre.  They make a mockery of justice, and Judges who hand these sorts of sentences out are just grandstanding. 

California is a the pioneer in "three strikes," sentencing the net result is that so many people are incarcerated for so long, Gov. Schwarznegger has found himself trying to furlough corrections officers to deal with budget shortfalls.  California in turn finds itself opening the prison doors for non-violent offenders.