Politics and Criminal Justice

An illegal immigrant got a 15 year sentence yesterday from a judge in Tarrant County in an intoxication manslaughter case. This caught my eye: "The national events of the day, with border security, were brought home in this case," prosecutor Miles Brissette said "Had this defendant not been in this country illegally, the victim in this case would still be alive today, most likely." Just a guess, but Miles might get called into his boss's office today and told, "You might want to keep politics out of your statements to the press." (This was the exact same issue that caused the huge blow up between Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera a few weeks back.) The story also highlights the strange world of criminal justice sentencing in Texas. The range of punishment was 2 to 20 years. Didn't a white guy get a 3 1/2 year sentence in an Intoxication Manslaughter case a couple of weeks ago by a plea bargain after a jury had found him guilty?