Conservatives call for Liberals to block ‘candy sentences’ for immigrants convicted of crimes

More on CPC immigration messaging. Valid to argue that this has been excessively enabled by the courts:

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner reiterated her call Tuesday for the Liberal government to amend the Criminal Code to put an end to “candy sentences” that she says allow immigrants who commit crimes to avoid deportation.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, the longtime Conservative MP argued that a slew of recent headlines detailing how non-Canadians charged with various crimes but received reduced sentences so as to avoid deportation proceedings was “insane and disgusting.”

“These types of rulings now happen so frequently that a judge in Montreal accused Montreal prosecutors of proposing candy sentences for criminals at risk of deportation, affirming that this is a common practice across the country,” she said.

“Practices that let certain people commit crimes with impunity are corrosive to a high-trust society. It makes Canada unsafe, leading to a society that is less trusting to everyone, including immigrants who have come to Canada and work hard and play by the rules.”

National Post has recently detailed many cases where a judge cited an accused’s immigration status as a mitigating factor when issuing a criminal sentence. In one case cited by Rempel Garner, a judge granted a Ghanaian man and loan shark who violently stole a woman’s phone a conditional discharge, citing his immigration status.

The Conservative MP once again called on the Liberals to amend the Criminal Code to prevent immigration status from being a consideration during sentencing for a crime. She also re-iterated her longstanding call for Immigration Minister Lena Diab and Justice Minister Sean Fraser to resign….

Source: Conservatives call for Liberals to block ‘candy sentences’ for immigrants convicted of crimes

Black People Are Wrongly Convicted Of Murder More Often, Data Show : NPR

Speaks for itself:

A record number of people, at least 166, were exonerated last year after being wrongly convicted of crimes, according to the most recent annual report from the National Registry of Exonerations.

It’s the third year in a row that data collected by a group of law schools showed a record number of exonerations in the U.S. — with 149 in 2015 and 125 the year before that.

Using information on exonerations going back to 1989, the latest report also shows that black people continue to be more likely to be wrongly convicted in America than people of other races. There is no standardized reporting system for exonerations, but the registry is the most complete national data collected on the subject.

Take the crime of murder. Last year, the report collected data on 52 people who were exonerated of murder. More than half of them, 28, were black.

companion report on race and wrongful conviction, also released Tuesday, states:

“African Americans are only 13% of the American population but a majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated. They constitute 47% of the 1,900 [total] exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations (as of October 2016).”

As NPR’s Joe Shapiro reported last year, “after almost nine years in prison, his conviction was overturned when a state investigation found that the real killer had later confessed to Wayne County police and prosecutors.”

Joe also reported that court fees, including a $1,500 bill for a public defender, nearly kept the now-23-year-old man from being released — even after he had been exonerated.

Last year, The Texas Tribune reported that the state had paid 101 people who were wrongly convicted nearly $100 million over the previous 25 years.