If someone stole hedge clippers, would a life sentence be an appropriate punishment?
That's the question many are asking after the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to review a case involving a 62-year-old man who was sentenced to life in prison for stealing yard tools.
Keep in mind: this guy had a lot of priors. Read the details of the case & give us your thoughts.
Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 for stealing the clippers and was subsequently given a life sentence, which was sanctioned under the state's habitual offender law. He appealed and the case eventually made its way to Louisiana's high court.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson was the lone dissenter. In her dissent, Johnson called Bryant's sentence "excessive and disproportionate to the offense" while noting the high cost of keeping Bryant imprisoned.
"Arrested at 38, Mr. Bryant has already spent nearly 23 years in prison and is now over 60 years old," she wrote. "If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers."
Bryant had four prior convictions. He was convicted in 1979 for armed robbery in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His other convictions were for possession of stolen items in 1987, check forgery for $150 in 1989 and a 1992 home burglary.