Sfdebris.net

As the article says, its a complex case, one where emotions can get the better of what is best for society. You don't want to signal to others that murder is now cheap and easy if you can tick a couple of preset victim boxes nor do you want to signal that someone forced into prostitution should just ''sit back and take it'' so to speak. I think the decision to let her out was correct in this instance.

She's served close to 15 years. More than good enough for me. Johnny Mitchell Allen probably didn't deserve to die, but I'm not going to shed any tears for someone who buys sex from a 16 year old either.

I agree, 15 years seems fair for murder in this particular case.

Dang. You hear of 10 year olds being tried as an adult, and it's like, "well I guess, considering it's really easy to understand how malicious a 10 year old can be despite not being mentally mature by legal adult age or w/ever." Then you see a case like this and they're just fine throwing her in prison for life. Technically nothing really seems askew from those two circumstances, but this just seems like a no-brainer.

I think one of the problems is that a lot of people were demanding clemency based on her claim that she shot him in self-defense, which was not supported by the evidence.

Therefore, the question of clemency was largely reduced in lot of the debate to whether she was justified or not in killing him, not whether the punishment was appropriate given the circumstances (or alternately, whether the punishment was just but she might be a good candidate for mercy).

Yeah, given how visible this case got, pretty much inevitable that the governor would release her to gain some sympathy points going into a rough election cycle.

Hmm that makes more sense.

Don't think it has much to do with the election cycle - (a) Bill Haslam is leaving office after serving two terms, and (b) the next TN governor's election is in 2022.