Felony murder in a good cause: A comment

After posting my extended comments on the sentencing of Montez Lee by Judge Wilhelmina Wright yesterday, I received a message from a knowledgeable law enforcement source on the investigation of the orgy of wanton destruction in the Twin Cities riots — block after block of burned buildings, all in the name of George Floyd, what a crock, as the source puts it.

My understanding is that the agents working the Twin Cities in the aftermath of the riots tried to make as many cases as they could, but the message from the United States Attorney’s Office was that they would prosecute only “a handful of cases,” precisely as I described the number in my comments. The agents themselves were given to understand that only a gesture of enforcement would be made.

Now to learn that the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota sought a substantial downward departure in sentencing in one of the best cases sickens him. Why should they bother? What incentive does law enforcement have for working hard and perfecting criminal cases if the prosecutors will only lodge token prosecutions? The Office of the United States Attorney should be ashamed.

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