“It’s not like ___ killed someone!”

It is a common belief among the family members and friends of the accused, as well as the accused, that unless a person kills someone the accused should get little to no jail or prison time. Perhaps this is why a person who is sentenced to probation for a not so serious crime, doesn’t understand why after numerous violations of probation and or community control that he will do time. After all, “it’s not like he killed someone.”

These same people also believe that people charged with murder either end up having their cases dropped, or receiving a non-prison sentence, but in any event the killers usually end up doing less prison time than people who commit crimes where no one is killed. Causing people to say, “I could murder someone and get less time” or “I would have been better off killing someone,” or “Murderers get less time than that.”

It is a myth to believe that there are a bunch of convicted killers walking the streets, but with the draconian drug laws and various other minimum-mandatory sentences, and enhancements in place a person could kill someone and get less time than a drug addict.133