Serial child rapist with 5 victims can't escape his 50- to 100-year prison term, Pa. court says
A Pennsylvania man convicted of raping or otherwise sexually abusing five children should expect to spend the rest of his life behind bars after a state Superior Court panel refused to overturn his 50- to 100-year prison sentence. The judges didn’t accept 51-year-old Vincent Clark’s argument that his punishment is “manifestly excessive.”
Instead, in an opinion by Judge Maria McLaughlin, the court found the virtual life sentence is just despite Clark’s argument that the Wyoming County judge who imposed it didn’t fully consider his rehabilitative needs and the fact that he has behaved well in prison. Clark was convicted in 2009 of repeatedly raping three children who were younger than 8 when he began preying upon them. He received two more child rape convictions for assaults on other children who were younger than 11 when he began victimizing them.
Each of the five child rape convictions carried a mandatory 10- to 20-year prison term. County Judge Russell D. Shurtleff imposed each of those sentences on Clark consecutively.
Clark’s case came back to McLaughlin’s court after the state judges ordered Shurtleff to hold another resentencing hearing. Shurtleff held that hearing, heard testimony about Clark’s rehabilitation needs, his attainment of a GED diploma, lack of disciplinary write-ups while in prison, and his work in the jail’s kitchen.
Then, as McLaughlin noted, the county judge reimposed the 50- to 100-year sentence after citing the “extreme nature” of Clark’s crimes and the need to protect his victims and the public. That was a legally appropriate call, McLaughlin found.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/11/serial-child-rapist-with-5-victims-cant-escape-his-50-to-100-year-prison-term-pa-court-says.html
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