GUILTY CA - Peter Lawrence for bank robbery, San Diego, 2010

Linda7NJ

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A 71-year-old terminally ill man has been sentenced to 21 years in a California prison for rolling his wheelchair into a San Diego bank and holding it up with a replica BB gun.

According to City News Service, Lawrence told the judge he robbed the Chase bank of more than $2,000 this summer because he felt hopeless after being diagnosed with a myriad of medical problems.
Defense lawyer Kenneth Kaminiski says his client did not want to harm anyone. Kaminiski says Lawrence wanted to get caught so he would not have to live on the streets

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHEELCHAIR_BANDIT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

and child rapists get how much time? WTH???? :banghead:
 
A 71-year-old terminally ill man has been sentenced to 21 years in a California prison for rolling his wheelchair into a San Diego bank and holding it up with a replica BB gun.

According to City News Service, Lawrence told the judge he robbed the Chase bank of more than $2,000 this summer because he felt hopeless after being diagnosed with a myriad of medical problems.
Defense lawyer Kenneth Kaminiski says his client did not want to harm anyone. Kaminiski says Lawrence wanted to get caught so he would not have to live on the streets

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHEELCHAIR_BANDIT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT

and child rapists get how much time? WTH???? :banghead:

To be fair it sounds like the guy got exactly what he wanted.
Now he doesn't have to live on the street, he gets health care and I presume three free meals a day. I bet that's exactly why he did what he did, to get into prison.
 
To be fair it sounds like the guy got exactly what he wanted.
Now he doesn't have to live on the street, he gets health care and I presume three free meals a day. I bet that's exactly why he did what he did, to get into prison.


I think you're right. How sad is that? It's a sad sad day when a 71 year old terminally ill man has to resort to such drastic steps in the USA! Then gets sentanced to 21 years in prision. That's justice???? It's appauling!

and still child predators get far less time, and many will be released and harm another child, maybe even kill a child the next time ........ in the same time frame as this man will be in prison.
 
Medicaid pays completely for nursing homes for people like him. I am wondering if he was really mentally capable of standing trial.
 
Medicaid pays completely for nursing homes for people like him. I am wondering if he was really mentally capable of standing trial.

Or if he belived that he can get anything from the goverment.
sometimes those who really are in need do not get.
If thier rent is $50.00 more then the charts allow for they get chit.

He may have thought that was his only solution :(
POOR OLD MAN one must be very desperate to think that way :(
 
gosh, i have so much to say about this but it might get me a time out.
poor man, we need to get our ***** straight in this country, and we need to help those that REALLY need it - this man obviously did.
 
gosh, i have so much to say about this but it might get me a time out.
poor man, we need to get our ***** straight in this country, and we need to help those that REALLY need it - this man obviously did.


Makes me want to start digging a tunnel to break him out of there! Then, taking that same shovel and whacking more than a few that the justice system keeps letting out to re-offend!

talk about going to he ll in a hand basket
 
I think you're right. How sad is that? It's a sad sad day when a 71 year old terminally ill man has to resort to such drastic steps in the USA! Then gets sentanced to 21 years in prision. That's justice???? It's appauling!

and still child predators get far less time, and many will be released and harm another child, maybe even kill a child the next time ........ in the same time frame as this man will be in prison.

It's sad but this is not the first time I heard of this sort of thing-someone attempting a crime in order to get caught to be sentenced to prison, which is what appears to have happened here. Now he doesn't have to worry about his health insurance or where his next meal will come from, or if he will have a roof over his head.
 
I hope his coming days are reasonably peaceful and he finds safety as well as food and shelter. Not a lot to ask, and yet I think his outlook is rather bleak. Very sad.
 
hey he got what he 1. needed 2. wanted. the surprise to me was that the judge accommodated him.

seems like a story with a happy ending, once you get over the angst over the way things are.
 
This may have been what he wanted, but is no way to spend the end of his life. It is sad that he felt so desperate and without resources. I don't know what to think about this. So many contradictory thoughts.
 
I am reminded of one of my favorite 'Judge' stories.
Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who later went on to become baseball commissioner, had an elderly man up for sentencing in front of him for bank robbery, he pronounced 'twenty years.'
The man said that due to his age, he couldn't possibly do the time. The judge replied, "Well, just do the best you can."
 

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