Reader: Legal Pub, How does this system of so called justice that you support treat parties so differently. Compare Susan LeFevre who gets probation to Linda Darby (LEGAL PUB LINK) who goes back to prison.
Legal Pub: Let's look at these stories in a bit of detail. Your original premise shows that you are some what misinformed. Darby was convicted of murder. She escaped from prison. While out of prison, she conducted herself admirably. Nevertheless, she was convicted of murder. She was returned to prison and while her original case is being "looked into" she remains incarcerated.
Susan LeFevre is a California woman who escaped from a Michigan prison 32 years ago. While on the lam, she existed as a San Diego suburban mother of three, known as Marie Walsh. After her recent capture she was sentenced to probation. Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner felt it significant that LeFevre had already served 14 months in prison on a drug conviction at the time of her escape. Longtime Fugitive Sentenced Critics argue that LeFevre had to serve 5 1/2 years in prison to be elgible for parol with her original sentence and that sentence should be extended because of the escape. However, the judge exclaimed that, "The court finds no reason to give you extra time," said Groner. Judge Groner then ordered two years of probation for the escape. To her credit, LeFevre, 53, acknowledged it was wrong for her to have escaped. But to educate you a little further, LeFevre is still in jail! Her attorneys still need to get her original 10-year sentence for heroin thrown out in Saginaw County Circuit Court.
The original sentence for LeFevre seemed very harsh for a recreational user. LeFevre was arrested when a friend attempted to sell a small amount of heroin to an undercover agent. When she was just 19, she was arrested on a heroin charge. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1974. In 1976 she scaled a prison fence and with the help of her grandfather, she escaped. Her first chance at parole comes after 5 1/2 years in prison, unless her original sentence is overturned. Assistant prosecutor Robert Donaldson argued that living all this time under an alias is "fraud." True, but 10 years in prison for a 19 year old who made a mistake is not right either. Judge Groner's decision not to add to her sentence is the first step in correcting an injustice. Hopefully the courts will reduce her original sentence because, she "has three kids who really need her."
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22 comments:
How can anyone not see the difference? One girl used heroine and another woman killed a man. Night and day in my book.
Shell
Escape is escape! Give em both life!
Ex-jailer
Kids need her. Boo hoo! She is an escaped convict!
to support Susan LEfevre please visit www.freesusanlefevre.com
Please sign the petition on the left link asking GOvernor Granholm to commute her sentence.
Thank You
Friends and Supporters of Susan LEfevre.
I am a supporter!
I'm with Shell, it's apples and oranges. I also find LeFevre's original sentence unusually harsh ...
* Michigan ruled the sentence handed to LeFevre constitutionally invalid over twenty years ago
* Even the judges know her current sentence is harsh and unfair and have admitted this
* Without winning the hearing appeal of her conviction, LeFevre could be held in prison for the next half decade or more
I’m appealing to readers for a favor. Write to Prosecutor Michael Thomas and ask him not to oppose the re-sentencing:
Prosecutor Michael Thomas
Saginaw County Courthouse
RE: Case No. 74-00284-FY
111 South Michigan Avenue
Saginaw, MI 48602
The deadline is October 10. Please do not delay.
Write to:
Honorable William A. Crane
Saginaw County 10th Circuit Court
111 S. Michigan Avenue
Saginaw, MI 48602
And ask that Susan LeFevre’s sentence be set aside and a fair sentence be given. She has paid her price in full.
Visit FreeSusanLeFevre.com
Any of those wishing to help Susan are encouraged to send your input to the above Prosecutor and/or judge. Some of you have expressed strong feelings, here is your chance to be a part of the story!
A recreational user? Hardly!
Susan Lefevre wasn't just 3 of my friend's drug dealer. She's the one who escalated their drug use and then raised the price on them. They showed up one night to get their supply, and she demanded more money. Not having enough, they went out and robbed someone. Susan knew that they had robbed someone, but she took the money anyway.
And after she got them hooked, she started 'cutting' the drugs, so they'd need more.
It wasn't long before they quit going to work, and just robbed party stores for their drug money, which Susan was happy to take.
They eventually were caught after robbing a Lawson's party store, and sent to Jackson Prison.
Now, I've never met Susan, but after my friends got out of jail, they told me about her. This comment really rang a bell:
"She seems to think she's in a different situation than the 883 other prisoners she's with," he said. "In my conversations with the staff who deal with her, (LeFevre) has the belief that the rules don't apply to her because she's a celebrity."
This is exactly the same person my friend's described to me nearly 30 years ago.
She hasn't changed...not one iota.
And worse...neither she nor her family has expressed any remorse, whatsoever.
She is as sick now as she was then.
Beatnik v. longfeller
What contrasting views of this person and the sentence. I really want to hear more about this lady before I weigh in on my opinion.
Bertha
Story Here
Here's(above) where the quote was taken from.
Google her. You'll see that she was no recreational user. There are articles all over the internet quoting those in law enforcement about the facts of the case. She made enough money every month to support her and her boyfriend's drug habit and still had thousands of dollars a month left over to go clubbing and buy clothes, etc.
Of my 3 friends, 2 of them straightened their lives out. The third one never recovered. When I last saw him, he was a 300lb alcoholic whose family was on welfare and living in the Canton Commons (public housing). He had been in & out of jail ever since. His wife was deathly afraid of him, and he had been charged with domestic abuse several times.
I grew up with this guy, and knew his family very well. I had dinner at their home many times. They're a solid, nice family. It was the drugs that ruined my friend's life, and Susan was the one who escalated it.
She needs to answer for my friend!
To me, the answer is a civil lawsuit. It should be answerable in money damages just like a suit against a doctor.
But as for the crime itself, not sure that the punishment was not too harsh compared to how similar people have been treated.
Just not sure...
Legal Eagle 3
"To me, the answer is a civil lawsuit. It should be answerable in money damages just like a suit against a doctor."
The problem with that is it took many years for my friend's family to realize that the young man they'd raised was gone forever. Bringing a suit more than a decade later would most likely, not be legally possible.
If you were to successfully argue that Susan's use of an alias and hiding for more than 30 years prevented you from being able to to file a case, her husband will claim that he was unaware that she was a fugitive and was using an alias. And since you cannot legally profit from a crime, Susan will be able to claim that she has no assets.
If you were able to overcome this, she'd make the "statute of limitations" arguement.
You see, Susan now wants to claim that she wasn't treated fairly some 30 years ago, so she deserves to be resentenced.
But if you were to make the same argument about my friend: he wasn't treated fairly 30 years ago and thus deserves to file criminal charges as an accessory for accepting stolen money as well as a civil suit against her, she'd scream bloody murder, and demand that the "letter of the law" be followed.
Remember: Susan is a sociopath, and to her, the ends always justify the means.
Longfeller, good analysis. But I would still try to sue! Cal might allow it...
ok she escaped and did do wrong are they goting to over look the other that edcaped? and for give them.she is no better the the one that got more time for done that.she the one that ran.
She ran, but she looked good staying out of trouble while she was out.
She really did reform. Let's give her a break.
She ran, but she looked good staying out of trouble while she was out.
She really did reform. Let's give her a break.
That's total BS!
What about the "real" Marie Walsh's family, who have to deal with all of the unpaid bills and other legal messes this sociopath has gotten them into by stealing their dead daughter's identity?
Hiding out well is not reform!
Sure this is reform. Everyone needs a little help starting over. It's not like the dead girl needed her identity. Look at what Susan accomplished in the last 3 years of being free. She was functioning as a good citizen. That is more then what 30 years of prison accomplishes for most!
She's reformed, eh?
From today's Detroit News:
"She maddeningly refused to answer the most innocuous question. Other times she rambled. Still other times she ignored her attorney's advice to stop talking."
"She later told the judge that her contradictory answers didn't put her in the best light. Yes I did lie," she said. "I've now made myself a liar."
She could lie to her family and friends, the media, and even her counsel, but her attempts to lie in front of the judge (who had her file) backfired.
It's fitting that she tripped herself with her own tongue.
Shame on all of you who excusified for this criminal.
Thanks above anon! Keep us posted.
Sorry, but her conduct post escape has been outstanding.
Marie
Yup, Marie, "outstanding." Out standing out side of the prison when she should have been behind the bars.
Clown
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