In an attempt to curtail runaway violence in Chicago, where murders are already outpacing last year’s sky-high total, some state senators are working with Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to impose stiffer sentences on those committing violent crime.
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the proposal would revise the guidelines judges use in determining sentences for repeat violent offenders. Currently judges can hand out sentences in the range of three to 14 years. But under the new proposal, judges would be required to sentence repeat violent offenders seven to 14 years, and would have to explain any deviation from that range.
“Let's be honest, the bad guys out there shooting at other gang members, they know what they can get away with and what they can't get away with,” state Sen. Tony Munoz, a former Chicago police officer who is sponsoring the legislation, told the Tribune. “This is not for a first-time person who decided to carry a gun today because ‘someone threatened to kill me and my mom when I came home from shopping.’ This is totally different.”
