After 35 years, TV thief to be free
May 29, 2005 1:06 AM   Subscribe

After 35 years behind bars and 25 failed requests for parole, Junior Allen will be set free.
posted by ori (44 comments total)
 
I'm all for being tough on criminals and law & order, but in this case, the punishment sure seems waaaaaay out of proportion to the crime. Poor guy.
posted by davidmsc at 1:13 AM on May 29, 2005


A bit light on background but that's just jaw-droppingly twisted 'justice'. Sounds like his attitude must have killed his previous parole attempts. But you'd be sitting there day after day going WHAT THE FUCK! so I can't blame him becoming bitter.
*strikes N.C. off of visitation list*
posted by peacay at 1:19 AM on May 29, 2005


(If it asks for a login, here are the bugmenot account.)
posted by ori at 1:41 AM on May 29, 2005


*strikes N.C. off of visitation list*

*adds comment to the "Retarded Things People Say on Mefi" list*
posted by Witty at 1:55 AM on May 29, 2005


*adds comment to the "Retarded Things People Say on Mefi" list*

Adds more MeFi users to ignore and/or mock online to my friends.
posted by Elim at 2:15 AM on May 29, 2005


christ witty, you'd think with your username you'd recognize rhetoric.
posted by peacay at 2:31 AM on May 29, 2005


Oh, and he's already been released: NYT, with a bit more background - he'd already been convicted of burglary and assault and had a string of jail infractions.
posted by peacay at 2:43 AM on May 29, 2005


Did he at least have a tv in his cell?
posted by sveskemus at 2:44 AM on May 29, 2005


peacay - Uh huh... right.

Anyway. Yea, sucks to be that guy. Good luck Junior.
posted by Witty at 2:45 AM on May 29, 2005


"Good luck Junior."

*Adds to list of MeFites who neglect the addressive comma*

*Adds self to list of MeFites who write sentence fragmentary pseudo-IRC actions*
posted by Eideteker at 3:44 AM on May 29, 2005


It's stuff like this that makes me wonder why anybody chooses to live in the US.
posted by veedubya at 4:38 AM on May 29, 2005


Geez. That is just a crying shame. The guy lost his entire LIFE in the Buford Pusser pokey. A whole new world waits out there for him to be amazed with. Makes me ashamed of the US and NC, where I live - in the small bubble of civilization surrounded by Duke, UNC, NCSU and RTP. Outside that is like stepping back 40 years. Except Asheville or Winston, of course [moonbirdie!].
posted by yoga at 4:44 AM on May 29, 2005


*Adds to list of MeFites who neglect the addressive comma*

Ha, Eideteker!

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder why anybody chooses to live in the US.

We're being forced to live here, dumbass.
posted by Witty at 5:16 AM on May 29, 2005


sveskemus: Did he at least have a tv in his cell?

(queitly proceeds to radio shack for new keyboard)
posted by ginbiafra at 5:28 AM on May 29, 2005


it just beggars belief. there must be some stony-hearted people in that jail, by which i mean people without one shred of humanity in them. how can you be human and feel so little compassion? this is a flagrant human rights abuse.
posted by mokey at 5:38 AM on May 29, 2005


What an injustice.

There were many crimes and inhumane sentences created by turn of the century Southerners that remain law.

Take fishing and hunting licences for example.

Many poor people would fish when they were hungry, and were gobbled up by convict leasing, in many places, a death sentence.
posted by drakepool at 5:40 AM on May 29, 2005


Life for stealing a TV? I guess the judge didn't like his looks.
posted by alumshubby at 6:29 AM on May 29, 2005


Or the way he smells, talks or dances.
posted by Witty at 6:58 AM on May 29, 2005


I want to know how many white people were sentence to life in prison for $140.00 TV burglaries in North Carolina in 1970.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:37 AM on May 29, 2005


Our current Democrat governor, Mike Easley, is a former prosecutor who's made it something of a leitmotif to not give a public fuck about wrongful convictions, absurd sentences, prosecutorial misconduct in death penalty cases and the like.
posted by mediareport at 7:53 AM on May 29, 2005


Go on now DR... let's get to it. This ain't nothin' but a case of no-good racism. Let's do some outragin'!
posted by Witty at 8:01 AM on May 29, 2005


Stories like this always make me wonder - they say that "they" begrudgingly let him out. Who is "they?" Is there someone sitting behind a mahogany desk somewhere who really had it out for this poor man and honestly worked to keep him in prison for this long? If so - I'm going to agree with peacay, North Carolina isn't getting a dime of my tourist dollars, if only for the same reasons that I don't visit countries with execution laws for drug possession.

*adds comment to the "Retarded Things People Say on Mefi" list*

We're being forced to live here, dumbass.

Wow, witty. You're really being a dick today.

On preview: This ain't nothin' but a case of no-good racism. Let's do some outragin'!

It probably is a case of down-right racism. I, also, would like to know how many whites were sentenced to life for second-degree burglary in NC during the 70s. The backlash against the civil rights movement in the south was nothing to sneeze at. Witty, you're batting zero, and it's making you come off like an asshole. I'd leave this thread alone.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:10 AM on May 29, 2005


In a reasonable world, the state would just let guys like this out. Matter of fact, this goes under the heading 'no brainer'.

But, due to the win at all cost system of justice we live under, no one can back down even when it is a no brainer. That is just sad.
posted by UseyurBrain at 8:12 AM on May 29, 2005


North Carolina isn't getting a dime of my tourist dollars,...

Yea... that'll teach 'em. As if you were ever planning to go there.

Wow, witty. You're really being a dick today.

Nahh... just responding to the dumbass things people say ALL THE TIME around here (which you have done yourself today).

Witty, you're batting zero,...

Wrong again. This thread is batting zero. Hey, I'm here to get my outrage on with everyone else... but let's at least hit this puppy from a new angle er sumthin'.

I, also, would like to know how many whites were sentenced to life for second-degree burglary in NC during the 70s.

Really? Maybe that's just more of that rhetoric peacay was talking about. I have to assume it is.
posted by Witty at 8:30 AM on May 29, 2005


I don't even think we're arguing about anything.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:39 AM on May 29, 2005


Oh, it doesn't matter. Witty is like a baby toy, press the giant buttons, it makes sounds. But it has a very limited sound bank, so most children above the age of 5 will quickly lose interest.
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:49 AM on May 29, 2005


Trolls are like stray cats. Feed 'em once, and they'll keep coming back.
posted by papakwanz at 9:37 AM on May 29, 2005




Take fishing and hunting licences for example.

Many poor people would fish when they were hungry, and were gobbled up by convict leasing, in many places, a death sentence.


I had never heard of convict leasing, but your comment made me look it up. Times like this I feel so ignorant of the horrors of American history - this was not in any of my history books.
Sheriffs, deputies and some court officials derived most of their compensation from fees charged to convicts for each step in their own arrest, conviction and shipment to a private company. That gave sheriffs an incentive to arrest and obtain convictions of as many people as possible. They also had an incentive to feed the prisoners as little as possible, since they could pocket the difference between what the state paid them and what they spent to maintain the convicts while in their custody. Some convicts had enough money to pay the fees themselves and gain their freedom; the many who didn't were instead put to work. Company lease payments for the convicts' time at hard labor then were used to cover the fees.

In 1902 and 1903, the only period for which a complete prisoner ledger survives for Jefferson County, where Birmingham is located, local officials prosecuted more than 3,000 misdemeanor cases, the great majority of them yielding a convict to work in a Sloss-Sheffield mine.

One of those convicts was John Clarke, a black miner convicted of "gaming" on April 11, 1903. Unable to pay, he ended up at the Sloss-Sheffield mines. Working off the fine would take 10 days. Fees for the sheriff, the county clerk and even the witnesses who testified in the case required that Mr. Clarke serve an additional 104 days in the mines. Sloss-Sheffield acquired him at a rate of $9 a month, Jefferson County records show. One month and three days later, he was dead, crushed by "falling rock," according to the Alabama Board of Inspectors of Convicts, the agency that monitored the system.
posted by letitrain at 10:33 AM on May 29, 2005


He wasn't in prison for stealing a TV. He was in prison for breaking into someone's home. There is a huge difference. Not saying a life sentence was appropriate. Just reacting to some exaggeration.
posted by Carbolic at 10:55 AM on May 29, 2005


davidmsc writes "I'm all for being tough on criminals and law & order, but in this case, the punishment sure seems waaaaaay out of proportion to the crime. Poor guy."

It's not so out of proportion if you consider all the facts of the case: Junior Allen is a Negro, and the victim was a white woman.
posted by orthogonality at 11:10 AM on May 29, 2005


I was in NC a few weeks ago. I'm just glad I didn't break into someone's house and steal a tv. That would've sucked.
posted by graventy at 11:16 AM on May 29, 2005


I was in NC a few weeks ago. I'm just glad I didn't break into someone's house and steal a tv. That would've sucked.

Well, the maximum penalty today is 3 years. If it was your first offense, you'd probably put on probation (I think).

To be fair, NC has changed it's laws. I'm sure that most states have had their fair share of historical injustices. Hell, all the southern states had, get this, slavery at some points. Avoiding a US state due to historical (ok, this guy was in jail for a long-ass time) issues is kind of silly.

It's well established that witty is a defective human, and should be ignored so his obnoxious posts can be deleted without breaking thread continuity.
posted by delmoi at 12:20 PM on May 29, 2005


Also:

Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Neil Johnson, the late victim's grandson, declined to comment on Allen's parole. He said reporters who have covered the case for The News & Observer and WRAL-TV have misrepresented it and should themselves go to prison.

What the hell did they say about it that pissed him off so much, I wonder.
posted by delmoi at 12:22 PM on May 29, 2005


What people really seem to forget is that there was slavery in the northern states also. Not to mention indentured servitude.
posted by Carbolic at 12:49 PM on May 29, 2005


in the small bubble of civilization surrounded by Duke, UNC, NCSU and RTP

look at the previous mefi story. we just had three cross burnings here "in the small bubble of civilization" on one night.

the combined intellectual power of the institutions mentioned above is, well, impotent and incapable of doing jack shit about anything of importance beyond holding a conference on Canadian Studies or some such horseshit.

if things ever improve in NC, it will be result of the combined resolve of the triangle's county cousins to awaken. no thanks to any area of the state whose main claim to fame is being home to more sophisticated consumers of better and more theaters and restaurants.
posted by 3.2.3 at 1:16 PM on May 29, 2005


They probably jailed him for so long because he's black n' stuff. I guess that makes me lucky to be white. I'll be damned if I ever go there buy things.

How'my doin' now?

Stay focused Carbolic... this is about a southern state and how horrible it is... the people in it, the people who run it, etc. You're ruining the fun.
posted by Witty at 1:35 PM on May 29, 2005


Trying to Witty. I just wanted to point out that everybody else sucks too.
posted by Carbolic at 1:50 PM on May 29, 2005


Hey kids, Lets get a fund going, so we can raise money to replace the shovel Witty is wearing out on his hole....
posted by Elim at 2:03 PM on May 29, 2005


Not trying to ruin the fun. Trying to stay focused.
posted by Carbolic at 3:03 PM on May 29, 2005


By far the greatest factor in the increase in incarceration in this country over the past 40 years has been the shift from indeterminate sentences, such as the ones under which Junior Allen was sentenced, to the current system of determinate sentences.

The old system permitted the vast majority of people to earn their release in a fairly short period of time, by evincing to the parole board some degree of contrition and self-control, and proving out their reform to their parole officers thereafter. The very few people who couldn't get that done ended up like Junior Allen, serving a long time indeed.

Bottom line: for every one person who has been spared Junior Allen's fate, there are dozens of people who are now spending five, or eight, or twelve years in prison when under the old system they would have been out in two or three years.
posted by MattD at 7:11 PM on May 29, 2005


orthogonality writes "Junior Allen is a Negro"
"A barely literate former migrant farm worker"

I'm presuming that a migrant has come from another country -- pedantic of course and no doubt will have made little difference to the scenario. Black is black is...
posted by peacay at 8:41 PM on May 29, 2005


Immigrants come from other countries. Migrants workers move with the harvest.
posted by Carbolic at 9:19 PM on May 29, 2005


Ah..ok. It tends to get interchanged with immigrant in general here (oz).
posted by peacay at 10:23 PM on May 29, 2005


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