What I want everyone to notice is the judge sees the problem even if the jury didn't want to use the death sentance option for this cold blood killer. Look at the concurrent verus consecutive sentences

We need as a society to start telling the criminals if you want to use firearms to hurt people, we will use the laws against you, to the fullest extent possible. IF you do the crime expeect to do the time.

Its got to work better than the current catch and release policy that tell criminals we will just enact more laws against the victims and law abiding gun owners that we won't enforce.

If you think this post is out of line with "slapping criminals on the wrist" please read this

PA Firearms Laws & PA Commission on Sentencing Reports
http://acslpa.org/n-legislative/pa_firearms_laws.htm



http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2...3378398289.txt

Convicted cabbie killer gets life without parole



MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A judge sentenced convicted killer Ramir Steve to life in prison without parole Tuesday, then tacked on an additional 13 to 26 years ensuring he will never see the outside of prison walls again.

“This sentence is intended to punish and send a message,” said Judge Barry Dozor in sentencing the 20-year-old Upper Darby man for the murder of Gregory Cunningham on Christmas Eve 2007.

Cunningham, 42, a County Cab Co. driver for two years, was gunned down after he picked up Steve in the 7400 block of Rogers Avenue, where he lived, about 2 a.m. The victim’s body was found in the walkway between buildings of the Park Lane East Apartments in Upper Darby.

Steve, following the killing, was quoted as telling a dispatcher who was seeking to send Cunningham’s cab to another location, “He ain’t coming … I killed him.”

In June, a jury convicted Steve of first-degree murder, robbery and carrying a firearm without a license. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for less than an hour before deciding that Steve should be sentenced to life in prison for Cunningham’s murder instead of the death penalty.

During sentencing on Tuesday, Defense Attorney Walter Breslin asked Dozor to be “as merciful as you may be under the circumstances.”

Acknowledging that a jury had already decided Steve will serve life behind bars instead of being put to death by lethal injection, Breslin asked that the sentence for the robbery and firearm convictions be served concurrently.

“Just to give the defendant some hope that in the event the life sentence is commuted,”
Breslin said.

Prosecutor James Halligan, however, argued for consecutive sentences based on the nature of the crime.

“The defendant killed Gregory Cunningham with premeditation,” Halligan said, adding that Steve committed the murder by making a call for a cabbie in the early morning of Christmas Eve with the intent of gunning down and robbing whoever answered the call. It happened to be Cunningham.

“Mr. Ramir Steve had a complete disregard for the life of Gregory Cunningham.”

The judge agreed with Halligan and told Steve he would spend the rest of his days in jail for the senseless killing.

In addition to life behind bars without parole, Dozor sentenced Steve to 114 to 228 months for the robbery conviction and 42 to 84 months for the firearm conviction — both sentences to run consecutively to the life sentence and to each other.

As the judge read the sentence, two young women, friends of Steve, broke down and sobbed.

“You understand the sentence?” Dozor asked Steve, who stood before him shackled about the waist, wrist and ankles.

“Yes sir,” responded Steve, expressing no emotion during the proceeding.

The victim’s parents were in the courtroom for the sentencing, tears rolling down their faces. Halligan told the judge that they did not wish to address the court.

In June, during the sentencing phase of the trial, the victim’s family issued a statement saying “there is no winner in the outcome of this tragedy, only two families who have lost their son and brother.”

The statement expressed “no ill will toward the Steve family” and stated it will “continue to pray for them as well as Ramir.”

“We want to commend all of those who came forward and testified truthfully; it took great courage and we know it was most

Steve’s twin brother, Romar Steve, testified as a prosecution witness, quoting the defendant as admitted he killed the cab driver. He admitted to trying to help his twin brother by hiding the evidence.

Romar Steve pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and sentenced to three years probation.