Former major leaguer Willie Aikens was released from Federal prison today after serving about 14 years of a 20-year sentence for the distribution of crack and other offenses.
At the time, punishment for crack offenders was much stricter than powdered cocaine because it was thought that crack defendants were more violent — an assumption that statistics did not definitively support.
The case of Aikens, who played four of his eight big-league seasons for the Royals, was often used as an example of how unfair those guidelines were, and last year, they were deemed cruel and unusual.
Three months ago, Congress approved new guidelines and made them retroactive — making Aikens one of about 20,000 inmates eligible for early release.
I don't want to go all political on you but I read in today's paper that Tatum O'Neal was arrested with 2 bags of cocaine and spent the night in jail and now goes back to court for a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance.
I don't know about the "unusual" part but 14 years for Willie sure seems excessive to me.
Anyway he was a fav of mine when he played for the Angels. If I remember right, he had the Mo Vaughn frame long before Mo had it but I'll find out he was tall and skinny.
I don't know about the "unusual" part but 14 years for Willie sure seems excessive to me.
Anyway he was a fav of mine when he played for the Angels. If I remember right, he had the Mo Vaughn frame long before Mo had it but I'll find out he was tall and skinny.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.