rep308
NES Member
Interesting, crooks actually going to jail for illegal gun possession.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re...ute_is_das_secret_weapon/srvc=home&position=0
The Suffolk District Attorney’s Office is deploying a long-dormant state statute to lock up “career criminals” in a strategy that saves the state money and is a secret weapon behind falling crime rates, authorities say.
“This work we’re doing is aimed at those who haven’t got the message,” said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. “Once you get them off the street, the whole community becomes a lot safer.”
The 1998 statute allows certain suspects - even those nabbed for relatively minor gun offenses - to be prosecuted under the armed career criminal charge, which carries a hefty prison sentence. Boston crime reached record lows last year thanks in part to the campaign, authorities say.
“(Boston) Police Commissioner (Edward) Davis will say there’s a very small number of bad actors that are driving the bulk of the crime we see on the street. I agree with that,” Conley said. “We don’t do this in every case . . . In order for us to expend the resources on the bad actors or major players, they’ve had opportunities. They haven’t accepted the message.”
Early last week Marvin Martin, 26, of Roxbury was sentenced to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of a TEC-9 with a 30-round clip.
The statutory minimum for unlawful possession of a firearm is an 18-month sentence, and that’s what many suspects get.
But Martin was selected by prosecutors for career criminal status due to three previous convictions: one for a 2001 stabbing, another in 2002 for distribution of crack cocaine and one for illegal possession of a handgun that got him slapped with a four-year sentence he completed just months before he was arrested with the TEC-9.
Prosecutions such as Martin’s had been rarely used for years because they require an extraordinary draw on resources. They are being levied now based on a calculation that one career criminal prosecution is more effective than spending years prosecuting a suspect for repeat offenses that carry short prison terms.
“The guys who carry the guns, these are the guys who get killed, these are the guys killing people, these are the guys who are going to drive these feuds - this back-and-forth shooting you hear police talk about,” Conley said. “It’s a great tool for us. It exposes dangerous criminals to severe sentences.”
To decide when to bring a case, prosecutors talk to cops and probation officers and look at the suspect’s record, Conley said.
“The gang unit police officers have a feel for it. They’re out there on the streets . . . talking to kids, they know who the really bad guys are. The probation officers might come to us,” he said. “Then we look at our files. It’s an inexact science, but that’s the way we get a sense of who the real troublemakers are.”
Martin is just the latest to rack up years in prison.
Earl Grant, 45, with two convictions for heroin possession and distribution, kicked a tiny, pocket-sized Beretta .25 caliber under a 1973 Buick Electra in 2006 and got six years in jail.
Troy Adams, 25, who has a 2003 drug conviction and a 2006 gun conviction, got pulled over in April 2008 and is serving 10 years in jail after cops found a Browning 9 mm in the vehicle’s center console.
Cops say those sentences make neighborhoods safer places to live and makes police work easier.
-snip
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re...ute_is_das_secret_weapon/srvc=home&position=0
The Suffolk District Attorney’s Office is deploying a long-dormant state statute to lock up “career criminals” in a strategy that saves the state money and is a secret weapon behind falling crime rates, authorities say.
“This work we’re doing is aimed at those who haven’t got the message,” said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. “Once you get them off the street, the whole community becomes a lot safer.”
The 1998 statute allows certain suspects - even those nabbed for relatively minor gun offenses - to be prosecuted under the armed career criminal charge, which carries a hefty prison sentence. Boston crime reached record lows last year thanks in part to the campaign, authorities say.
“(Boston) Police Commissioner (Edward) Davis will say there’s a very small number of bad actors that are driving the bulk of the crime we see on the street. I agree with that,” Conley said. “We don’t do this in every case . . . In order for us to expend the resources on the bad actors or major players, they’ve had opportunities. They haven’t accepted the message.”
Early last week Marvin Martin, 26, of Roxbury was sentenced to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of a TEC-9 with a 30-round clip.
The statutory minimum for unlawful possession of a firearm is an 18-month sentence, and that’s what many suspects get.
But Martin was selected by prosecutors for career criminal status due to three previous convictions: one for a 2001 stabbing, another in 2002 for distribution of crack cocaine and one for illegal possession of a handgun that got him slapped with a four-year sentence he completed just months before he was arrested with the TEC-9.
Prosecutions such as Martin’s had been rarely used for years because they require an extraordinary draw on resources. They are being levied now based on a calculation that one career criminal prosecution is more effective than spending years prosecuting a suspect for repeat offenses that carry short prison terms.
“The guys who carry the guns, these are the guys who get killed, these are the guys killing people, these are the guys who are going to drive these feuds - this back-and-forth shooting you hear police talk about,” Conley said. “It’s a great tool for us. It exposes dangerous criminals to severe sentences.”
To decide when to bring a case, prosecutors talk to cops and probation officers and look at the suspect’s record, Conley said.
“The gang unit police officers have a feel for it. They’re out there on the streets . . . talking to kids, they know who the really bad guys are. The probation officers might come to us,” he said. “Then we look at our files. It’s an inexact science, but that’s the way we get a sense of who the real troublemakers are.”
Martin is just the latest to rack up years in prison.
Earl Grant, 45, with two convictions for heroin possession and distribution, kicked a tiny, pocket-sized Beretta .25 caliber under a 1973 Buick Electra in 2006 and got six years in jail.
Troy Adams, 25, who has a 2003 drug conviction and a 2006 gun conviction, got pulled over in April 2008 and is serving 10 years in jail after cops found a Browning 9 mm in the vehicle’s center console.
Cops say those sentences make neighborhoods safer places to live and makes police work easier.
-snip
![[rolleyes]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/042.gif "Roll Eyes [rolleyes]")
![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
