When will we learn? We are not helping a kid like this by going soft. We are merely encouraging a course that leads down one of two paths: death or prison.
The suspect arrested in Saturday’s fatal shooting on Madison’s Near West Side was previously charged with forgery and recently allowed to enter a deferred prosecution program, according to court records.
Marcus T. Hamilton, 20, was arrested on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide, according to the Madison Police Department. Those charges were referred to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, Madison Assistant Chief John Patterson said Sunday.
[…]
Last year, Hamilton was arrested after police said he used a fake $50 bill at a restaurant and was charged with felony forgery. In July, he pleaded guilty to forgery and was referred by the Dane County District Attorney’s Office to its First Offenders Program, according to court records.
In September, he was accepted into the program, which typically allows a person to avoid a criminal conviction in return for obtaining treatment and staying out of trouble. The details of Hamilton’s deferred prosecution agreement were not available Sunday.
Typical liberal justice.
Awful. Just awful.
Since it’s a VERY big leap from $50.00 forgery to 1st degree murder, one suspects that this goblin’s rap-sheet is a lot longer, but hidden because ‘juvie.’
Why wasn’t this referred to the Feds? I thought counterfeiting was a federal offense?
The Feds, frankly, don’t give a damn about one $50.00 bill. They’ll be happy to look into several dozen of same.
Besides, from what we see here (admittedly not much), it looks like the guy took out his crayons and swapped a “5” for a “1” or something–or tried to add a zero to a $5.00 bill. A one-off, strictly amateur attempt.
Not something the Secret Service cares about, so it became a State felony.