Crime break

The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Brandon Hutchinson's death sentence in a case where co-defendant Freddy Lopez received 10 years based on ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase. However, the court also noted that during the trial, Lopez's sister won the lottery, and used $230,000 of her winnings to settle a wrongful death action with the victims' family, in exchange for their agreement to recommend that the prosecutors accept a 10 year sentence. According to the court, which found no error on this ground, "Under the settlement agreement entered into evidence at the hearing, Lopez would pay the victims' family $230,000.00 if: the family recommended to the prosecutor that Lopez receive no more than ten years in prison and the judge actually sentenced Lopez to a prison term not to exceed ten years." The prosecution and court went along; Lopez got 10 years, Hutchinson was sentenced to death.

CrimProf blog post

Of course the legal system and the courts are corrupt. But this is just plain wierd. What are these people thinking? I guess the victims' (two brothers) family were thinking a quarter of a million dollars was a better deal for them than keeping a killer off the streets.

Hey, if Lopez has a beef with another member of that family, maybe he can capitalize on this deal again in ten years. By then, maybe his sister's lottery winnings will have been wisely invested, and they'll have another tidy sum to pay off another killing.

Hutchinson had better just count his blessings and keep his nose clean.

(Oh, by the way, Lopez testifed against Hutchinson. Perhaps his sister should think about coming up with some protection dinero when Hutchinson is back on the streets.)