Joe Ervine sentenced

Late last Friday afternoon, 12/17/10, Judge Hyde bestowed the sentence on Joe Samuel Erving, Jr.  You will recall that Mr. Ervine was convicted in November of slinging crack in the Flats. Actually the formal charge was possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver. Click for trial summary.

The trial was heard by a jury which could have found him guilty of mere possession, but the testimony of a police officer convinced them that Mr. Ervine must have been holding the drugs because he intended to sell them. Mr. Ervine had elected before trial to have the penalty decided by the judge, and that happened Friday afternoon.

Judge Hyde listened to the prosecutor and the defense attorney give brief arguments for why Mr. Ervine should go to prison or be released on probation. Judge Hyde had ordered a sentencing report at the end of the trial, and at the hearing on Friday he announced that the report suggested that Mr. Ervine seemed unable to control his drug and alcohol use, and therefore he would not be a good candidate for probation. So the Judge sentenced him to 15 years in the slammer.

At the penalty phase of the trial Mr. Ervine confessed that at the time he was arrested he was conducting a "pass-off," a phrase that doesn't appear in the government's dictionary of drug terms, but which could reasonably be construed to mean that he was merely the person who did the dangerous work, i.e., passing off the drugs to the customer and taking the money -- the part of the trade with the highest risk of detection and arrest.

My expertise on the drug trade was formulated from watching The Wire on TV.  And there, if it can be believed, the street sales were conducted by adolescents who were expendable. One gets arrested, another one steps in his place. Here, if Mr. Ervine's case is typical, it looks like the kingpins might be using adults willing to do the pass-offs in order to feed their own drug habits. It's a ruthless business.

Most of the members of the jury pool told the lawyers in voir dire that they believed the most important thing about the criminal justice system should be punishment, not rehabilitation. And those people would probably be satisfied with the punishment meted out to Mr. Ervine.

Smarter people than me have wrestled with this, and the opinions all over the map. But this bystander has to question whether warehousing a junkie in the pen until he reaches retirement age is the best thing for society. I guess they have to do something with him. But the alternatives are limited to probation or prison. Too bad there's not some third alternative that wouldn't cost taxpayers as much as prison yet still keep tabs on the guy and just maybe give him a greater chance of breaking that ruinous habit than would sentencing him to stagnate in the penitentiary where any skills he learns will not be to make the world a better place.

There are no winners in the war on drugs.

Comments

[jeff]

George, I had the very great pleasure/honor of student clerking for Judge Hyde in the late 80s, and my regard for him has only growing in the ensuinmg years.

Whatever he decided is alright by me.

[Geo]

That must have been a very educational experience, Jeff. (An easy "A" too, I bet.)