Brown's executive secretary, Jim Humes, shied away from the politically dangerous question of whether the governor would support shortening prison sentences to cut prison overcrowding in the long term.
A Qatari poet, Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment, cut on appeal to 15 years, for "inciting the overthrow of the ruling system" with his poem "Tunisian Jasmine", celebrating the pro-democracy movement.
Voltaire could not save his life — La Barre was tortured, and sentenced to have his tongue cut out, before he was killed and burned, along with Voltaire's book — but his writings helped make certain that La Barre was the last man to be murdered in France for blasphemy.
Being joined by John Rous from Barbadoes, the three men were sentenced to having their right ears cut off, and the sentence was carried out in July.
In October 2008, he was found guilty of murdering Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in jail – a sentence later cut to 16 years.
Given that barrage, Cameron dares not do the only thing that will make a difference – change the sentencing guidelines to cut the ever-lengthening prison terms.
As such, community sentences would have to cut a total of 40% of all custodial sentences of less than 12 months to achieve the intended 3,000 reduction in the overall prison population by 2014/15 announced by the Ministry of Justice last week.
The government regularly insures that life sentenced are cut to a few years once the miscreant mass-murderer has helped convict others of his ilk.
After decades of lengthening sentences, state leaders are realizing that it is possible to cut sentences and prison spending without harming the public.
Although Holder and civil liberty advocates argue lengthy sentences for minor offences can be counter-productive and lead to overcrowding, the impetus for the new push to cut sentences appears to have been driven primarily by a need to cut soaring government costs.
