Two men different in correctness and social standing. One a poor homeless man in Louisiana, the other a struggling, bad songwriter from a prominent oil family.
The former, caught in a sting operation was found guilty of buying $20 dollars’ worth of marijuana. The latter tried to murder a sitting US president in a vain endeavor to catch the eye of a Hollywood starlet. But one was found guilty and the other innocent by reason of insanity (though everybody knows he’s guilty) of their crimes and face two very different forms of justice.
Fate Vincent Winslow, bought $20 worth of weed in a sting operation after an undercover cop promised him 5 dollars in exchange for the marijuana. After arrest he was asked why he did so, his response “to get $5 dollars to get something to eat.” He will receive life in prison with Hard Labor.
John Hinckley Jr. tried to murder the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. He succeeded in severely wounding Reagan, but failed in his ultimate goal. In the process he wounded DC Police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and Press Secretary James Brady who was so severely wounded that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He died unpeacefully August 4th, last year—in severe and unimaginable pain for over 30 years— and his death has been ruled a homicide by police, the murderer: John Hinckley Jr. Yet Hinckley will not face hard labor, nor life in prison, or even prison. In 1982 he was found not guilty by reasons of insanity. Half the year he spends in an institute, the other half “he spends in a house overlooking the 13th hole of a golf course in a gated community.”
Hinckley, even years later remains a “narcissistic” individual with no evidence of remorse.
Hinckley goes for long walks. How nice. Were it that Jim Brady could go for a long walk, just once in 30 years. Alas, he is prematurely dead, murdered at the hand of John Hinckley.
Wednesday, a court will decide if he gets to spend the rest of his life in his comfortable upscale family home or return to a comfortable institution. Almost every restriction that has placed on him he has broken. He was told not to enter bookstores or go to the movies (these seemingly innocuous activities triggered his violent spree in the first place), yet he has been caught doing both. Reportedly, he is still obsessed with Jody Foster and still fixated with the movie, “Taxi Driver.”
Moreover, he’s demonstrated deceptive behavior and dangerous relationships with women. All the while he has maintained innocence and lied about everything. When he was found not guilty 83% of the country felt justice was not served. Should this diagnosed sociopath be granted such a deep well of empathy (from the courts and his lawyers) and second chances while Fate Vincent Winslow toils in chains for the rest of his life?
Could it be that the liberal justice system has revealed its true hand? All these loopholes and “special deals,” they seem to work great for men like OJ Simpson, John Hinckley, and Ethan Couch, but Fate Winslow will get the short end of the stick. Is this another case of “all are equal but some are more equal” or is this something even darker?
Assassins have been found insane before, but this this the first time that one could actually be released from the comfy institute. An entitled Vanderbilt graduate from an elite family is going to get out of the most minimal of prisons.
Where’s the liberal outcry of elitism? The whiff of hypocrisy reeks throughout the criminal justice system.
The vitriol many progressives maintain for Reagan makes itself manifest in various ways. Most recently his statue was defaced by ultra leftist, ignorant college students. Could their unreasoned hatred of him, could the judge’s indifference to the real fears of the Reagan family, be so malicious that the system will betray any sense of justice and permit a sociopathic murderer to walk free?
We’ll find out Wednesday.
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