Crime and Moral Punishment

Joe Sullivan has been in jail for 19 years.  He was found guilty of raping a 72-year old woman in Pensacola, Florida in 1989.  According to the New York Times, Sullivan and two others broke into her home to rob her when one stayed behind to rape her.  The victim couldn’t identify her assailant and could only say he was “a colored boy” who “had kinky hair and he was quite black and he was small.”  She also said she “did not see him full in the face.”  Nonetheless, a jury found Sullivan guilty of rape.  The presiding judge said, “I’m going to send him away for as long as I can.”  He did.  Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the age of 13.  He doesn’t deny the robbery, but adamantly maintains his innocence on the rape charge.  Sullivan says an older boy he was with committed the crime.  That older boy was not tried as an adult and served his sentence out in juvenile detention, while Sullivan was send to the big house.

Now, the Equal Justice Initiative has come to Sullivan’s defense.  The organization “provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.”  Their lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court arguing his sentence violates the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause in the Eight Amendment.  According to their statistics, only two 13-year olds have been given life without parole in the U.S. for a non-killing offense.  Sullivan is one.  In fact, there are only 8 children in the entire world serving life sentences for crimes committed at the age of 13.  All of them are in the United States.

There is plenty wrong with this case.  Sullivan is described as being “severely mentally disabled” whose health has deteriorated so much in prison he is confined to a wheelchair.  As mentioned above, the victim couldn’t identify him in court as the rapist.  Sullivan’s lawyer at the time gave no opening statement and his closing statement was only a few paragraphs long.  This lawyer has been suspended by the state of Florida and it “not eligible to practice law” there.  Sometimes, juries get it wrong.  Sometimes judges get it wrong.  The EJI isn’t even appealing Sullivan’s innocence.  They are appealing the sentence.  Several different statistics show that very few rapists end up serving life in prison for their crimes.  The U.S. Justice Department says, in 1992, the average sentence for rape was 117 months and that only 56% of those sentences were served (other stats put the average sentence between 8 and 9 years).  Yet, a 13-year old boy sits in jail 19-years later on a shaky conviction.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but on more than one occasion our justice system has let child rapists back out on the street who go on to commit more horrific acts.  Why not make an example of out one of them instead of this kid?

Don’t get me wrong, this country has to be tough on crime.  Rapists should be jailed and jailed for a long time.  But, you can’t tell me a 13-year-old deserves a longer sentence for the same crime committed by a 35-year-old.  Keeping Joe Sullivan in jail to serve out the rest of his days is overly excessive and morally incorrect.  While we remain tough on crime, our justice system should also employ common sense and heed the words of Ben Franklin, “it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.”