NationStates Jolt Archive

An interesting headline caught my eye today whilst reading the Strib, "Serving Justice or Politics?". It was about the release and rearrest of Kathleen Soliah AKA Sarah Jane Olsen.

For those of you who don't know, she was involved in the Corcker National Bank robbery where she murdered Myrna Opsahl and kicked a pregant teller in the gut which led to a miscarraige before leaving. Later on she was caught planning to blow up police cars and kill the cops that resided within. Now it seems that she has served her time for the planned cop bombings but neither she nor her lawyers think she should have to serve time for the actual murder.

Just how is this politics?

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/16944051.html

no its not unfair for her to have to go back to prison. either its legal or it isnt.

if it is, she needs to serve as much of her sentence as they can legally require her to serve.

if it isnt, california should be ashamed to have such light penalties for murder.

I'm confused:

But the sentencing judge had said the terms must run consecutively. Thus, Olson's combined sentence is 14 years, 12 years in the bombing case and two years for the bank murder. Work credits and good behavior can only cut that in half, to seven years, Opsahl said. That puts her release one year away.

she been good and odds are the state is ready (or not) to release her back into the wild, should I care?

well yeah I should after reading it again however I guess the courts are trying to look tough or something

I still have no idea what that terrorist group's goal is...

In my opinion, if you fuck up and release someone by accident, tough nooggies.

An interesting headline caught my eye today whilst reading the Strib, "Serving Justice or Politics?". It was about the release and rearrest of Kathleen Soliah AKA Sarah Jane Olsen.

For those of you who don't know, she was involved in the Corcker National Bank robbery where she murdered Myrna Opsahl and kicked a pregant teller in the gut which led to a miscarraige before leaving. Later on she was caught planning to blow up police cars and kill the cops that resided within. Now it seems that she has served her time for the planned cop bombings but neither she nor her lawyers think she should have to serve time for the actual murder.

Just how is this politics?

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/16944051.html

Your summary isn't particularly accurate in many respects. Among other things, you take the worst that she has ever been accused of doing and assuming it all was true -- even stating she committed first hand things she was convicted of doing as an accomplice.

More importantly, the bolded statement is completely untrue. There is a dispute over whether Ms. Olson was mistakenly released or whether she has served her full sentence. The calculations are rather complicated, involve plea agreements that were made, multiple different sentencings, and various court rulings. There is also a question of whether, if she was released early, that alone is cause to re-jail her. Assuming she does have to serve more time, it will amount to one more year.

Politics does not appear to have played a part in Ms. Olson's release and should have little to do with whether she ultimately will serve more time. There is little doubt, however, that political pressure is what caused correction officials to "recognize" their alleged mistake and re-imprison Ms. Olson. (Again, that does NOT mean I think she shouldn't necessarily serve more time.)