And the room temperature bad guy had been paroled even though he had committed, and been convicted of, a separate felony while in prison.Speaking as a 20-year parole officer, it's hard to know the thinking of a parole board. They are often motivated by things that we on the street don't consider. But, on every parole certificate I've ever seen, there is a prohibition on firearms.
In Louisiana, for example, the parole conditions say in part:
5. I shall not have in my possession or control any firearms or dangerous weapons.Over the course of my career, I arrested a lot of goblins for firearms possession. I'd arrest immediately on a violation of parole, then refer the offense to the District Attorney to see if he wanted to press new charges for Poss Firearm by Convicted Felon.
The parolee would always be sent back on my violation, but I never once had a DA file new charges based on my report. It seemed like it would be a pretty easy slam-dunk, but no DA ever took the bait. Go figure.
4 comments:
Last I knew, at least in Kansas, you couldn't be in possession of any firearm, if you were convicted of any felony, for life. You had to keep your nose clean for X-number of years afterward and then petition the court to have your record expunged. I would assume most states have the same requirements.
Same here in Texas. Definite violation.
The Prosecutor/State Attorney/District Attorney is an elected position, with assistant lawyers under them.
My experience is that the (Whatever) Attorney tends to either plea down or not prosecute in order to continue getting elected. As the elected official is often voted in or out by the very pool of people he/she/it is often at odds with the most.
The DA's office probably decides not to prosecute on the additional crime of Felon in Possession because they figure he's already back in jail for the probation violation, so why add another case to their own workload.
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