Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Sometimes, what I do for a living can get a tad depressing.

Today I took part in a sentencing hearing on a young man who waw recently convicted of murder and attempted murder in a trial which I presented.

The young man, Comdy Vang, was 17-years old at the time that he decided to do a drive-by on another young man named Herseng Vang. Both are Hmong. Apparently, there are a limited number of family names among the Hmong. This is emphasized by the fact that the driver of the car from which the shots were fired is named Nu Her and the driver of one of the cars in the victim's group is named Nu Her.

At any rate, prior to the trial, Comdy was offered the opportunity to plead guilty to second degree murder with the use of a gun which would net him 25 years to life in prison. At age 42 he would have been eligible to seek parole.

Comdy's defense attorney tried to talk him into taking the deal (you can imagine how strong the evidence was that HIS attorney wanted him to plead guilty).

However, sadly for Comdy, he had "found religion" during the time he was awaiting tiral. Comdy chose to put his fate in the hands of his gods (some sort of tribal religion).

Comdy was convicted of everything in sight and was just sentenced, minutes ago, to life without the possibilty of parole. This means that Comdy will only get out of jail if he dies, is pardoned or the law changes.

Faith did not set him free.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Maybe this will server as a deterrent to others considering drive-bys.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

i severely doubt it

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

That makes me wonder..

Did the judge speak justice when he didn't take the deal?
Or would the judge have spoken justice if he took it?

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Congratulations dda! You've just improved the gene pool!

:\

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Am I the only one who kept reading Comdy as Comedy?

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Maybe this story can help travler find his ways.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Well, he'd have to aquire a gun of some variety and then participate in a drive by shooting, discharging his firearm and slaughtering some (more or less) innocent compatriot in senseless violence which didnt actually achieve anything, first.

Alas, also in the story, Comdy only found God after he was caught, sadly this is not the case with everyone.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Nope, I did too :(

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

I did in the title - i thought this thread was going to be a depressing insight into the depravity of the human condition and the loss of humour throughout the world and its people.

I am glad that i was mistaken!

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Considering that the people carrying out these sorts of activities are the sorts of people who think it's worth murdering another human being over "respect" or some miniscule financial motive (in the scheme of things) I'm not sure they're the most rational of people to begin with. As such, I'm doubtful how much value a deterrent is going to have.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

How? I've never understood the vague deterence nature of justice for all crimes, if a sentence was going to act as a deterrant it would be constant and couldn't be plea-bargined down or in britain be affected by guilty pleas at certain stages. With the exception of certain situations, i don't think human behaviour is like that.

All that could be said is that Comdy Vang chose his own route, he is from his own perspective at peace with his decision. There was a non-certain possibility that he would be released in the future, his conscience meant an easier time in prison than out.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

The main thing is that people committing the crimes don't think they will get caught. Thus the consequences of what would happen when/if they do don't often cross their mind.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

I think it is; I bet there are quite a few people who have refrained from (eg) sleeping with underage girls or taking drugs because they think the potential risks are too high. SImilarly the currenty UK laws related to child-raising probably discourage some people from underage sex, and so on. I suspect the majority of people would quite happily commit large scale theft if they could get away with it (and then rationalise it to themselves afterwards).


Anyway, I dont see how the original post is depressing other than that the incident happened in the first place. Why is it bad that the guy got life imprisonment rather than 25 years?

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Definitely. Although I doubt the same applies to most other crimes. And that's kind of the point. If the punishment for armed robbery of banks was reduced to a £50 fine then I've no doubt the number of people trying it would go up 1000% overnight. People are presumed to rob banks for rational reasons.

When it comes to violent murders (even ones for theoretically economic reasons like gang-murders) it's not clear what sort of basis people are making decisions on and deterrence falls apart a bit. I find it ridiculous to imagine there's many people who would think "Hmmm, I wouldn't mind a 25 year sentence but 30 years - no way man!"
Because there was a chance, however slim, in the 25-years scenario that he could have had some sort of productive life after being released. Now that's pretty much impossible*. Of course, given the state of American prisons the chance of him coming out at 42 as a healthy happy functioning human being are pretty low anyhow.

* = Well, it's obviously possible to have a type of productive life in prison but it's obviously dramatically less likely to happen. And if you're including "Having / raising a family" in that then it is actually impossible.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

The thread title led me to believe that Jo Brand was touring again.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

I said 'for all crimes' precisely for the reasons dante/stte mentioned, id tend to agree theres a detterance if you're conciously acting in a manner where the crime gives you a tangible reward, the cost-benefit analysis clearly takes place, but for other crimes regardless of whether its speeding or gangland violence a 'it'll never happen to me' type attitute emerges, perhaps in addition to a feeling the law doesn't appreciate the subtleties of your existance and hence you don't respect it to begin with.


I believe in reformative justice, i can barely remember the person i was at 17, its a harsh thought to have to sit in your cell at 85 and close to death realise you don't even recognise the person you were decades ago but that you still have to 'pay' for what happened then.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Its already happening, MP3's, movies, software, etc...

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Comedy wang and knew her. Has to be a joke in here somewhere.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

I certainly do NOT feel sorry for people like him. He knew exactly what he was doing. I believe all 3 were guilty, but it's sad how the system works that the backseat suspect wasn't charged at all. As for the driver, I didn't understand how the jurors could have actually bought his story, claiming that he was too drunk and didn't know how or why he rear ended the victim's car. Any drunk person wouldn't be capable of operating a car in such a way, as to rear ending a car and speeding off.

What's more disturbing is that they couldn't come down to a conclusion for the driver & now he's on the run. So where in the world is he hiding? God knows...and justice isn't served until the driver is caught.

All I know is that the victim's family will never find peace and closure. No parent should have to bury their own child, especially one who is in college and had his whole life ahead of him. This is heartbreaking.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

Dude, this thread is over four years old.

What the ****? You registered to post this? Seriously - go find a better internet.

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

maybe its related to the victim

Re: Say Good Bye Comdy
 

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca9/10-17715/

I wish to know what the warden did. Why is Comdy upset with the warden?

dda... please come back and tell us.