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roadmaster
08-23-2018, 05:28 PM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A U.S. judge ordered a convicted killer from Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation released from prison on Thursday after part of his conviction was overturned for not meeting the definition of a violent crime.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek wept as she told the court, including the victim’s three daughters, that she had no legal basis to ask to keep Quinton Birdinground Jr. behind bars.
Birdinground served 15 years of his original 24-year sentence for assaulting his estranged girlfriend and killing his uncle, Emerson Pickett, after a night of drinking in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters expressed unease over Birdinground’s release but said she was bound under a 2015 Supreme Court ruling and encouraged prosecutors to appeal.
“How in the world could second-degree murder not be a crime of violence?” Watters said to Pickett’s family during Thursday’s hearing. “I get that. I have to follow the law.”
Birdinground was found guilty of assault and murder, but the issue hinges on his conviction of using a firearm during a violent crime.
Watters threw out the firearm conviction last month, citing the 2015 ruling and saying the U.S. law behind the weapons charge was so vague as to be unconstitutional.

https://apnews.com/ffd2170b23a4408793f6dc5e07cf0041/Montana-killer-freed-because-law-says-it's-not-violent-crime?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APWestRegion&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&__twitter_impression=true

donttread
09-01-2018, 10:00 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A U.S. judge ordered a convicted killer from Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation released from prison on Thursday after part of his conviction was overturned for not meeting the definition of a violent crime.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek wept as she told the court, including the victim’s three daughters, that she had no legal basis to ask to keep Quinton Birdinground Jr. behind bars.
Birdinground served 15 years of his original 24-year sentence for assaulting his estranged girlfriend and killing his uncle, Emerson Pickett, after a night of drinking in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters expressed unease over Birdinground’s release but said she was bound under a 2015 Supreme Court ruling and encouraged prosecutors to appeal.
“How in the world could second-degree murder not be a crime of violence?” Watters said to Pickett’s family during Thursday’s hearing. “I get that. I have to follow the law.”
Birdinground was found guilty of assault and murder, but the issue hinges on his conviction of using a firearm during a violent crime.
Watters threw out the firearm conviction last month, citing the 2015 ruling and saying the U.S. law behind the weapons charge was so vague as to be unconstitutional.

https://apnews.com/ffd2170b23a4408793f6dc5e07cf0041/Montana-killer-freed-because-law-says-it's-not-violent-crime?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APWestRegion&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&__twitter_impression=true



The unintended consequences of control freaks. If you kill somebody it's worse if you do it with a gun somehow? Fucking country is bananas !
Where else could assault and murder not be violent enough to garner more that 15 years? But don't worry , people who sold drugs to feed their own head will remain in jail for longer.