83-Year Old Man Gets 20 Years for Distribution
April 7th, 2009 by Rick
Down south, in Rome, GA, at the U.S. District Court, 3 men have been sentenced to federal prison for their part in distributing hundreds of kilograms of marijuana in northwest Georgia and Tennessee. One of these men, 83-year-old Paul Faulkner, was given a virtual death sentence of 20 years.
Faulkner’s lawyer claimed that Faulkner was not a major part of the conspiracy and that 24 months would have been a more appropriate sentence due to his client’s age and health.
Judge Robert Vining said a mandatory minimum sentence was handed down to Faulkner because of his involvement in bootlegging in the 1940s and that he was last jailed on marijuana-related charges in 1999. Judge Vining said it was the most unreasonable sentence he has ever handed down, but he couldn’t go outside the statute. Execution of the sentence was stayed until August 1st.
