Garcia has been arrested at least 22 times in Florida. His first arrest, for vehicle theft, happened in Miami on April 30, 1997, just three days after his 15th birthday.....
He was arrested several other times as a teenager, on charges including assault on a law enforcement officer, car burglary, making or attempting to make an explosive device, possession of marijuana and trafficking in amphetamines, according to FDLE documents.
As an adult, he was arrested on charges including aggravated assault with a weapon, criminal mischief, possession of cocaine and marijuana and strong arm robbery.
It wasn't immediately clear how many times he was convicted or how much time he's spent in county jail. He has no history of incarceration in Florida state prisons.
Translation: Garcia had spent virtually his entire life proving that he was an unrepentant violent criminal and that he could not live peacefully in civil society. Yet he served not one day in state prison.
We are often lectured that America over-incarcerates. What Dan Markel's murder shows, to the exact contrary, is that America gives too many morally oblivious second chances. Prof. Markel will not be the last to pay the price.
Would you call for the death penalty for everyone involved in this hit, Bill? Just curious if you think this is one of those crimes that demand the ultimate punishment.
I certainly wouldn't put the death penalty off the table in advance. Would you?
And to return to the subject of the thread, do you agree that the atrocious failure previously to incarcerate this man, and keep him incarcerated for at least several years, had a hand (at the minimum) in Prof. Markel's murder?
When do "second chances" become, not a virtue, but a scandal?
I certainly would not call for the death penalty for everyone involved in any case without knowing the extent or circumstances of their involvement. It is not unusual in a multi-perpetrator murder to find varying degrees of culpability among the perpetrators.
The Tyler, Texas dragging case comes to mind. The two primary perps got death, but one was found to be a relatively minor participant and got a lesser sentence.
Donna Kay Lee, whose case just might be a summary disposition by SCOTUS in the next week or two, got life in prison while the primary perpetrator got death, and I think that is correct.
Bill, that's a deep question for second chances but an easy one for twenty-third chances.