THERE IS SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH THE LAW

There is something terribly wrong with the law when, despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, a triple-murderer gets to plead to the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter because his 78-year sentence was overturned on a prosecutorial misconduct technicality. And now this piece of urban shit gets dumped on the good folks in a rural area.
　
LEGAL DUMPING: URBAN TRASH STINKS UP RURAL COMMUITIES
By Jeff Doyle
　
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
September 13, 2010
　
Herzog won’t be paroled in S.J.
By Scott Smith, Stockton Record Staff Writer
　
__STOCKTON – Protests that local residents mounted against Loren Herzog forced state prison officials to announce Friday that the Linden man once convicted of multiple murders will be released next week hundreds of miles north of San Joaquin County in a remote corner of California.
　
__Herzog, 43, is expected to be paroled in Lassen County on Friday.
　
__Relatives of Herzog’s victims and those who testified against him in court petitioned officials to place him at least 35 miles away from them…
　
__Herzog had been sentenced to 78 years in state prison for his role in three murders. But an appellate court tossed the conviction, and Herzog later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Cyndi Vanderheiden’s death, cutting his sentence down to 12 years…(Full text at Stockton Record)
　
While the residents of Lassen County are likely to get their collective dander up over the decision, there is no question Penal Code §3003 grants CDCR authority to dump filth such as Loren Herzog in rural hamlets…
　
Within the context of the law, it is certainly compassionate, reasonable and permissible to accommodate the victims’ survivors by paroling him outside of their area. However, it should be noted relocating Herzog was not mandatory under the penal code: Survivors are not considered victims under §3003 et seq. In that context, by "giving the greatest weight to the…safety of the community" of San Joaquin County CDCR gave short shrift to the safety and well-being of Lassen–It’s easy to pick on the little guys.
　
CDCR has the option of paroling Herzog anywhere in the state. However, in typical DORC fashion, these decisions have been delegated to the four parole regions. As a result, Herzog’s options for "administrative placement" were limited to the largely rural counties designated as Parole Region I.
　
But why not Fresno, Kern or Sacramento? Why was this High Risk offender sent to California’s own Mayberry? Again, they are the little guys–The aforementioned counties have large populations which translates to votes, to state senators and assembly members and…clout. Dumping Herzog in a densely populated county would invariably create an uproar…
　
Dump your trash in Lassen, they won’t mind. And if they do, so what?
　
Bob Walsh added:

__I confess to mixed feelings about this. Allowing an obviously guilty mass murdered out on a technicality offends me, even though that technicality involved prosecutorial misconduct. (No, I don’t know any other way to address the issue effectively.) Allowing him to roam freely where he hunted for victims freely offends me and the families of his victims.
　
__Dumping him on somebody else also offends me. Especially a thinly populated rural area where it will be harder to watch and/or supervise him.
　
__The preferably outcome would have been to skrag him in the first place, but since we didn’t do that we have to go with a really crappy plan B, both options of which suck.