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DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Wed May 24, 2017, 12:07 PM May 2017

Black man found not guilty of crime. Sentenced to 7 years anyways. [View all]

http://www.theroot.com/black-man-found-not-guilty-of-crime-still-sentenced-to-1795475956

According to The Independent, in 2012 Chatman was convicted of breaking and entering for stealing a television worth $120. It was his first offense, but because he was—again, you know why—Chatman was sentenced to five years’ probation.

...

Unbeknownst to Chatman, he was identified as a suspect in a convenience store robbery in 2014. Although he was on probation, which means that he was required to submit his whereabouts to law-enforcement officials monthly, Chatman was never arrested for the robbery. In fact, according to him, he had no idea that he was a suspect.

In 2015 Chatman learned that he had been accused of the crime, so, like most thug gangsters who need to be removed from society for the safety of the good citizens, Chatman did what any criminal would do after evading law-enforcement officers for a year: He turned himself in. Chatman said that he only turned himself in for the crime because he knew he was innocent.

...

So Chatman went to trial. It turns out that during the trial, the police had no evidence for the case. They didn’t find a weapon. They didn’t recover any money. There was no video. In fact, the clerk who identified Chatman ID’d him on Facebook over a year after the robbery. So the jury found Chatman not guilty of all charges.

But the judge wanted to send him to jail, so he did.

Niedrach still thought Chatman was guilty, so he revoked Chatman’s probation and sent him to jail. Now Chatman must sit in prison until 2022.







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Sentenced to jail because he violated his probation by being accused and being found not guilty of a crime he didn't commit.
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