September 18, 2008

Here is another notable example of how gun laws prohibiting felons from possessing guns can lead to strange developments in the federal criminal justice system. This local story, headined "Felon aided woman but kept gun and gets jail: Man not faulted for stopping suicide, but keeping weapon," starts and ends this way:

A man who stopped a woman from harming herself with a handgun was sentenced to 12 months in prison this week by a federal judge. Bryant K. Ervin ended up with prison time not because he stopped a potential suicide, but because he was a convicted felon and was barred from possessing a firearm.

In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Weede said the government was seeking jail time because Ervin kept the weapon for more than a week afterward, not because of the way he came to possess the silver handgun.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for a prison term between two and three years. Weede recommended a sentence of 15 months, or about half the guideline range, because of the circumstances. Ervin's defense attorney, Kier Bradford-Grey, asked District Judge Sue L. Robinson to give him a sentence of time served, or about seven months....

U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly said the message from this case is, "Felons and guns don't mix and we have a zero tolerance level for convicted felons possessing weapons." However, he said if his office encountered "an extreme case where a felon did take possession of a gun to save the life of another individual, and that person called police immediately [to turn in the gun,] we wouldn't prosecute that person." In this case, Connolly noted, the defendant kept the gun for more than a week by his own admission. "And that is a crime."

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2008/09/proof-of-aphori.html