Life Sentences Given in Four States

Death sen­tences have declined across the coun­try. The fol­low­ing four cas­es are recent illus­tra­tions of this trend:

• In Cook County, Illinois, a judge sen­tenced Ronald Hinton to life with­out parole, cit­ing abuse in the defendant’s back­ground and his remorse for the crimes. Hinton admit­ted to three mur­ders. (Chicago Tribune, August 25, 2004).

• In Butler County, Ohio, a three-judge pan­el sen­tenced Tom West to life with­out parole for a shoot­ing spree at a truck­ing com­pa­ny in which two peo­ple were killed and three oth­ers wound­ed. Costs of the tri­al, the agree­ment of the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, and the defendant’s men­tal ill­ness were cit­ed as rea­sons for the plea agree­ment. (Cincinnati Enquirer, August 24, 2004).

• In Crown Point, Indiana, Stephen Richards plead­ed guilty and will be sen­tenced to life with­out parole for the shot­gun slay­ing of two peo­ple over a sack of coins. Victims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers agreed to the plea arrange­ment. (NWITimes​.com, August 24, 2004 (Munster Times)).

• In San Mateo, California, pros­e­cu­tors announced that they would not seek the death penal­ty against Seti Scanlan despite Scanlan’s beg­ging the jury to sen­tence him to death. Prosecutors cit­ed costs and the uncer­tain­ty of get­ting a death ver­dict. A vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­ber was quot­ed as agree­ing with the deci­sion. (See above, San Jose Mercury News, August 24, 2004).