ALL FELONS RECEIVE LIFE SENTENCES

In the past I’ve written about the injustice of our sex offender registration laws that make it almost impossible for a sex offender to live anywhere within an urban area.

Harold Dutton is a very liberal member of the Texas House of Representatives and as such I often disagree with his views. But Rep. Dutton has is exactly right when he writes about the unjust problems ALL ex-convicts face the rest of their lives. And these problems are also faced by ex-cons in the other 49 states, not just in Texas.

EVERY FELON GETS A LIFE OF TROUBLE
By State Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr.

Houston Chronicle
May 17, 2010

In Texas, we give every felon a life sentence. Oh, I don't mean “we the jury.” It's more like “we the public.”

Take for example the recent experience of a really nice man who called my legislative office. All he wanted to do was to move his family into another apartment complex. In fact, his truck was loaded, he had notified his previous landlord, he had the utilities turned on at his new place, and he was ready to move in when he called me.

As he was leaving his old place with all of his belongings packed up for the short drive to the new apartment, his phone rang. The number on the cell phone indicated the call was from the manager at the new place. He didn't answer because he was already on the way over.

As the truck pulled up to the new place, the apartment manager came over and said, “I am so sorry, but we are not able to rent you this apartment.” Surprised, the man asked why. The apartment manager stated that the complex had a policy of absolutely never, ever renting to an ex-felon. You see, a background check indicated that the man had a felony conviction on his record.

This situation happens far too often these days. A person who has completed his felony sentence attempts to restart his life and no one will hire him and no one will rent him a place to live. In fact, this happens so often that if this was the end of this story, there simply would be no story.

The background check of this man showed he had a felony conviction in 1960, 50 years ago. And if that doesn't surprise you, this man was 80 years old and his wife, a recent cancer patient, was 65 years old.

I literally begged the owners of the apartment complex to add some common sense to their rule. “A rule is rule,” I was told, and “there are no exceptions.” I even suggested a change in the rule — exclude only those ex-felons who are at least 80 years old with a conviction at least 50 years old. Still, I was told, “A rule is a rule.” And no amount of common sense or anything else would change the apartment owner's mind and permit this family to move into this apartment complex.

Well, maybe some will agree with this rule. Not me. Too many people seem to accept this ill treatment of ex-felons who have served the sentence the jury rendered. But the public jury stacks a life sentence onto all ex-felons, and the ex-felon serves it till death.

Forget double jeopardy, that's just plain illogical. And wrong. A life sentence should come from the court jury, not from the public jury.