Is justice only served when a celebrity joins the fight? Well, that appears to be the case for a truck driver sentenced to 110 years behind bars. Reality tv star Kim Kardashian used her celebrity voice to sound the alarm of a Cuban truck driver sentenced to 110 years behind bars after a deadly traffic accident.
In 2019, Prosecutors claimed Rogel Aguilera-Mederos caused a deadly crash that took the lives of four people. Aguilera-Mederos's defense claimed the brakes on his company vehicle failed. Unfortunately, a jury found Aguilera-Mederos guilty of 4 counts of vehicular homicide and 23 other charges, sparking a Colorado judge to deliver a whopping 110-year sentence due to mandatory minimums. Aguilera-Mederos's emotional video at sentencing sent shock waves to supporters including future attorney Kim Kardashian.
Kim and millions of outraged supporters signed a petition to reduce Aguilera-Mederos's sentence. That's when Governor Jared Polis stepped in and reduced Aguilera- Mederos by 100 years. Aguilera-Mederos could have spent the rest of his life behind bars if Kim Kardashian hadn't taken action. But what about the tens of thousands of other individuals serving outrageous sentences due to mandatory minimums? Does Kim have to find them for justice to be served? Or should the criminal justice system go back and fix these injustices?
What is a mandatory minimum sentence?
A mandatory minimum is a sentence, created by Congress or a state legislature, which the court must give to a person convicted of a crime, no matter what the unique circumstances of the offender or the offense are.
What can you do to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences?
One way to help the fight on mandatory minimums is to stop voting for politicians who support mandatory minimum sentences.
Learn more at: https://famm.org/our-work/u-s-congress/repeal/
Solution: One way to reform mandatory minimum sentences is simply to get rid of them — to strike them out of the federal code, or “repeal” them. Repealing mandatory minimum sentences would not give judges full and unfettered discretion to sentence however they wanted to — without mandatory minimums, federal judges would still have to do what they do in all federal criminal cases, which is apply the federal sentencing guidelines to determine the person’s sentence. The federal sentencing guidelines are written by a panel of criminal justice experts and give judges instruction on how to sentence. However, guidelines also provide greater flexibility to take all the facts into consideration and impose a sentence that fits. FAMM supports repealing federal mandatory minimum sentences.
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