Posted on 05/13/2014 1:46:05 AM PDT by PoloSec
Rene Lima-Marin had been free for nearly 6 years. Living a good life with his wife and children since his release in 2008, but that was all about to change for the convicted armed robber.
Marin, originally from Aurora, Colorado opened the door this past January, 2014 only to discover the police who were there to arrest him. In the end, a court clerk’s error led to the release of Marin, 90 years to soon. Colorado authorities did not discover the mistake till January and immediately sent him back to prison to serve the rest of his 98 year sentence.
Lima-Marin’s case brings light to the numerous other clerical errors that have let criminals go free. In the state of Missouri, a judge this week freed a convicted robber who didn’t report to prison, though the robber tried to do so multiple times, all due to clerical error. A California murder suspect who had been freed last year due to a clerk’s error was also captured this past Thursday.
Marin and his friend were convicted in 2000 on multiple robbery, kidnapping and burglary charges that involved two violent robberies. Marin at the time was only 20, but the pair ordered the employees in once case into a back room at gunpoint and demanded money stored in a safe.
The judge in the case sentenced Marin to serve back-to-back sentences on eight counts, for a total of 98 years. The court clerk in the case mistakenly wrote in his file that the sentences were to run concurrent. Marin was released on parole in 2008 after serving the noted 8 year term on his paperwork.
Marin set about building a life, while prosecutors now say he was fully aware of the clerical error. Marin, now 35 years old, took on various jobs, stalling windows and making good money. He connected with his former girlfriend, they married in July of 2012, a celebration of his 5th year anniversary of his parole and a celebration to the new life ahead.
Lima-Marin’s co-defendant, Michael Clifton, nearly received the same release from prison until he filed an appeal which uncovered the mistake. Clifton is serving the same 98 year sentence. Marin filed his own appear but in a rare move, asked the court to dismiss it less than a year later. The motion to dismiss the appeal shows the prosecutors in the case that Marin was well aware of the clerical error before his release.
Colorado State Public Defender, Doug Wilson would not comment on the case. In April, a judge declined to set Marin free at his public defender’s request. The judge in the new case set forth in the system said Marin knew he should have served 98 years but remained silent about the mistake.
Marin’s wife Jasmine noted that her husband had led a good life outside of prison and that people do change and reform themselves. She also noted that Marin did not hide his identity or leave the very region is lived his entire life in to avoid prosecution. Jasmine believes that Marin was handed a second chance at life and they [the police] have taken that away from him.
His luck ran out, these next 90 years will be much harder to serve.
I do think the sentence should be dismissed. While do we want people to serve time for their crimes, if they reform themselves, we should take it into account. A justice system that insists on the absolute letter of the law is not administering justice. By definition, justice cannot be absolute - it must take into account the particular facts of the case at hand, including the defendant’s conduct when he remained free in the world.
Meanwhile under Obama and Holder: Not only did Homeland Security spring 68,000 criminals who are in the country illegally rather than process them for deportation in 2013, it freed nearly 40,000 in detention while they waited to hear if they’d been booted, the Center for Immigration Studies reported.
The 36,007 released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody included criminals convicted of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated assault, and in 16,000 cases, nailed for drunk or drugged driving, the Center reported, citing an ICE tally.
While I agree - he is not that bright if he thought the law would not eventually get around to re-arresting him. If I was him I would have changed country - moved to Canada or South America!
He rehabilitated himself, that fact is intolerable to the ‘justice’ system. So he had to be ‘punished’ for it.
I guess you could also say this is another instance of zero common-sense like you see in the school systems today when it comes to chewing a pop-tart into the shape of a pistol.
99 years for robbery? Is the private prison system providing kickbacks to judges and contributions to campaigns for politicians to appear tough on crime? It isn’t healthy to have a justice system with a commercial motive for keeping convicts locked up for as long as possible and not rehabilitate them.
Someone must be running for political office....
Can’t be targeted as soft on crime....
90 years to soon...
ordered the employees in once case into a back room...
...stalling windows and making good money.
Marin filed his own appear...
...the very region is lived his entire life...
Just more clerical errors. Did the author formerly work as a court reporter?
Ummm, the clerical “error” did not put him back in prison, it got him out. How many of these clerical errors are really just errors?
Kidnapping.
I’m wondering what the man’s skin melanin content had to do with the story.
Seems irrelevant to me. I guess I don’t try to politicize race at every opportunity, though.
A clerical CORRECTION puts him back into prison.
(Who writes this stuff?)
Good grief! Was this written by someone for whom English is a second language? Starting with the contradictory headline, it is one big mess.
So who is the “Javert” who prides himself on capturing this “ValJean”?
Not to mention:
...90 years to soon.
No.
A Clerical Error Puts Man With 98 Year Sentence Back on the Street; Correction Sends Him Back To Prison for 90 years.
How many convicted murderers, pedophiles and rapists walk the streets prowling for new victims while the Just-Us system preys on men who turn from crime and reform themselves?
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