There's a lot of talk about sentencing reform, as the country goes through one of its periodic spasms of rationality as regards its criminal justice system, most of which last only until another easily exploitable crime comes along. A lot of the current attention is rightly being paid to the ludicrous sentences handed down for drug offenses over the last 30 years, although the sudden spotlight being shined on solitary confinementis long overdue, as well.

But disproportionate sentences -- and mandatory minimums -- distort the sentences meted out for a number of crimes, especially under the joint-venture theory of criminal For example, in Boston, Chris Faraone once wrote about the case of Joe Donovan, a Cambridge man who was given a life sentence of life for his part in the death of a Norwegian man in 1992. When Donovan was 17 and a senior in high school, he got into a scuffle with an MIT student named Yngve Raustein. Donovan punched Raustein. As Donovan nursed his knuckles, one of his companions stabbed Raustein to death.

Donovan asked McHugh if he had stabbed

someone while he was urinating. At that moment, McHugh told the others

that he chased Donovan's sucker punch with a lethal shanking, and that

he'd done it "just to see what it was like to watch somebody die." Looking

back, says Donovan, "At this point I'm thinking he's sick in the head,

and I told him to give me the knife. It was a crazy knife, like

something you would see on a crazy redneck hunting show. Right then, I

realized that he stabbed someone, and right after that the cops started

coming, but I still didn't think that I was in much trouble for anything

besides punching someone."

Extremely wrong. At trial, Donovan turned down a deal offered by the district attorney. He got slugged with the massive sentence he is now serving under the joint-venture theory. (The actual murderer, the guy who stabbed Raustein, got out in 2003.) Donovan has a parole hearing tomorrow. The joint-venture rule is something of an open invitation to prosecutorial coercion and general mischief. If we are going to reform the criminal justice system in the right way, it needs a look, too.

Which is not even to get into this remarkable study. Enough. Seriously.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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