Alabama man who served 36 years of life sentence for $50 robbery to be freed

[Warlord]

How much is $50 in today FRN's?

A man from Alabama who was sentenced to life without parole after robbing a bakery of $50.75 in his 20s is to be released after more than three decades in prison.

Alvin Kennard, who was convicted of first degree robbery following the bakery incident, was 22 when he was first imprisoned in 1983.

Now, 36 years on, the 58-year-old is finally to be free after a judge ordered his release from Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer.

Kennard was given the disproportionately harsh sentence under Alabama’s old Habitual Felony Offender Act, also known as the “three strikes law”. He had previously been sentenced to three years’ probation for three counts of second-degree burglary in relation to one burglary in 1979. The fourth conviction – for the bakery robbery, which was committed with a knife and involved no injuries – meant he had to be sentenced to life without parole.

Emotional friends and family leapt up and raised their arms in celebration in the court on Wednesday as circuit judge David Carpenter re-sentenced him to time served.

“All of us [were] crying,” his niece, Patricia Jones, told WBRC. “We’ve been talking about it for, I don’t know, 20-plus years, about being free.”

Kennard, who previously worked in carpentry and construction, reportedly told the judge he wants to work as a carpenter. He attended court shackled and wearing a red-and-white striped prison uniform.

“He says he wants to get him a job, he wants to support himself, and we’re going to support him,” said Jones.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/29/alvin-kennard-sentenced-to-life-released-prison

 

[fisharmor]

I'm not sure cases like this are a hill I would choose to die on.

 

[CoastieInColorado]

I don't care if it was $2.00, and he could should have paid for it with his actual life if he robbed the wrong store.

He was exactly the type of person the law was made for, screw this guy. The elephant in the room here is his robberies escalated to armed robberies...

 

[GunnyFreedom]

He didn’t learn his lesson during the first three light sentences, and then chose of his own accord, to escalate the violence?

humm. Not sure I gaf about this guy.

Three strikes laws in and of themselves can be horribly abused and should not exist. In their place maybe some guidance for judges and juries handing down sentences to deal with habitual felons escalating their violence. ie change the standard from “shall” to “may” and provide explicit legislative guidance attempting to filter out the hapless idiots from the “I don’t care who dies for me to get ahead” instead of catching everyone up in the same net.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Also, “mandatory life sentence” is an appalling idea. Maybe a jury could have looked at this guy, seen the pattern of felony burglary, light sentence, felony burglary, light sentence, felony burglary, light sentence, escalation to felony armed robbery, and then hit him with 20 years for habitual and escalation..... but that should be up to the jury not some ignorant legislators. You can’t mandate a specific punishment for you don’t know what tf situation.

I’m not opposed to habitual offender laws and punishing escalation; but you can’t mandate that sht from on high. That sht has to be tailored to every individual criminal by the actual jury handing down the sentences.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Was it worth spending half a $million in taxpayer money on a guy who stole $50? (36 years at $15,000 a year Alabama prison costs -which is one of the lowest in the country) Not including court costs? Was the bakery made right and society protected? Over ten thousand times what the store lost in the robbery.

(the previous three charges were from one single incident so this was really only his second crime- he was given three years probation for that one)

He had previously been sentenced to three years’ probation for three counts of second-degree burglary in relation to one burglary in 1979.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Was it worth spending half a $million in taxpayer money on a guy who stole $50? (36 years at $15,000 a year Alabama prison costs) Not including court costs?

(the previous three charges were from one single incident so this was really only his second crime)

Yeah, so maybe a jury decides to only add 6 months to a year for habituation. The real stupidity here is that their State Legislature thought they should be allowed to dictate a life sentence.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Yeah, so maybe a jury decides to only add 6 months to a year for habituation. The real stupidity here is that their State Legislature thought they should be allowed to dictate a life sentence.

Politicians trying to be "tough on crime". Mandatory sentencing. Most states which passed these laws are starting to regret them. Jails getting filled up with minor offenders while serious crimes get released sooner to make room for the mandatories. Some have been repealed.

 

[phill4paul]

Well, he did have two previous strikes. The third would lead us to believe a habitual offender enable of self-correction.

Honestly, I just imagine a helicopter dropping off a raft at Point Nemo, with 4 weeks of food and calling it a day.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Politicians trying to be "tough on crime". Mandatory sentencing. Most states which passed these laws are starting to regret them. Jails getting filled up with minor offenders while serious crimes get released sooner to make room for the mandatories. Some have been repealed.

There are ways to deal with actual habituation without being blithering political idiots about it. You are right however that this comes from tough on crime political campaigns. Politicians and voters doing stupid crap because it sounds and feels good without giving five minutes worth of actual thought to long term consequences. Also not new in politics.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Well, he did have two previous strikes. The third would lead us to believe a habitual offender enable of self-correction.

Honestly, I just imagine a helicopter dropping off a raft at Point Nemo, with 4 weeks of food and calling it a day.

Three counts from one previous burglary for which he was given probation four years earlier when he was 18. This was only really his second crime. Not exactly a hardened criminal at that point in time.

 

[phill4paul]

Three counts from one previous burglary for which he was given probation four years earlier when he was 18. This was only really his second crime. Not exactly a hardened criminal at that point in time.

Not in contention, Zip. It was a bullshit sentence. Cost taxpayers tens of thousands, possibly hundreds. The judicial system sucks. But at what point do you call 'enough is enough..' Stealing bread if hungry is one thing, threatening a bakery owner to give cash is quite another. No?

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Not in contention, Zip. It was a bullshit sentence. Cost taxpayers tens of thousands, possibly hundreds. The judicial system sucks. But at what point do you call 'enough is enough..' Stealing bread if hungry is one thing, threatening a bakery owner to give cash is quite another. No?

I figure on the one hand we need to give judges and juries effective tools to actually address habituation, but on the other hand “mandatory life sentence” is stupid. Maybe in a specific case the habituation is actually bad enough to do a life sentence. Maybe let a jury decide that instead of some random legislator from six years prior.

 

[Origanalist]

I figure on the one hand we need to give judges and juries effective tools to actually address habituation, but on the other hand “mandatory life sentence” is stupid. Maybe in a specific case the habituation is actually bad enough to do a life sentence. Maybe let a jury decide that instead of some random legislator from six years prior.

That would make a tad bit more sense. It's not like we really need anymore people in prison. That being said, armed robbery deserves more than a slap on the hand.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Maybe State legislative permissive language to DAs to add habituation to sentencing guidelines, and provide guidance to jurisdictions developing their own habituation schedules. Minimal federal regulation would be enabled...on the schedules but just enough to prohibit “cruel and unusual” and fulfill the incorporated Constitutional requirement.

A system to address real habituation could be developed. Three strikes is not and has never been that system. Three strikes is more akin to a brutal despotic joke.

 

[phill4paul]

I figure on the one hand we need to give judges and juries effective tools to actually address habituation, but on the other hand “mandatory life sentence” is stupid. Maybe in a specific case the habituation is actually bad enough to do a life sentence. Maybe let a jury decide that instead of some random legislator from six years prior.

Restitution, community service. Or expulsion from society. These are the steps I see for recidivents.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

That would make a tad bit more sense. It's not like we really need anymore people in prison. That being said, armed robbery deserves more than a slap on the hand.

Right. If this guy goes to prison for armed robbery, comes out and does it again, wash rinse repeat like five times, maybe really hurt a couple people, at some point a reasonable jury is gonna want to sit this guy in the penalty box for a couple decades.

If a specific case of recidivism is bad enough there is legitimate cause to impose penalties for it.

But all of that HAS to belong to the individual situation. If you are going to do that then it needs to be in the jury’s power to penalize the habituation by one week six months eight years twenty years or yes even life. If you have an actual habitual actual murderer that somehow gets out and does it again three times because of whatever laws then a jury should be able to say enough is enough. Not that murder/prison/murder/prison/murder/prison and now the guy is free is a common thing. I imagine that is spectacularly uncommon. But you do have to at least account for the spectacularly uncommon.

Normal case I’d see some low level petty crap getting like an extra six months and then coming back an extra 18 months, and back again an extra two years and coming back again an extra 5 years (on top of the actual criminal sentences) and at some point the ones who just want to fk people have way fewer times at bat, but space remains to have a religious experience and actually reform.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

It would imprison an order of magnitude fewer than “three strikes” and yet still keep unrepentant reoffending criminals out of the way almost as much as it does today. Without the rank stupidity of handing out life sentences for getting caught with weed three times. Which is a thing that used to happen.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Restitution, community service. Or expulsion from society. These are the steps I see for recidivents.

Sure, but you also have to account for the unexpected. If I recall there have been people in the past three striked over simple drug possession. Probably someone in prison right now on a three strike sentence because they had a quarter ounce of weed. Which is unconscionable. So when we come up with a fix like “three strike laws” we have to work our what other parts of justice this law will break.

I don’t.....believe.....people are getting three striked over simple possession anymore I could be and frankly probably am wrong about that.

 

[Schifference]

Some people are on the street homeless. All they want is to drink or be high all the time. Transport all those people to a flop house with free booze and drugs. Let them drink and drug to their hearts content. Community setting with a wall of course. No entry or exit without meeting protocol.

Build a new model prison in the middle of nowhere surrounded by of course multiple walls. No weapons inside facility. No guards. Air drop supplies on a regular basis. No rules or laws inside the gates. Outside the facility are multilayered security system. The first level directly surrounding the facility is a high voltage electrical current that would instantly electrocute any/everything that comes in contact with it. Very large complex. People are free to roam where they choose. The incarcerated set their own rules. Behavior monitored by constant surveillance. If someone is exemplary they are released. The inmates can create their own societies/gangs/tribes/government. Leave them to their own resources to solve all their own issues.