Will Mason Five Get Equal Jail Sentences?

Norman Rodriguez

According to Rodriguez, the number of years to be handed down by Justice Moore will succeed careful deliberation having heard the pleas of the convicted killers, as well as family members and attorneys.  It is not to say, however, that they will all received the same sentence despite being criminally charged and tried in joint enterprise.

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney for Ashton Vanegas

“That is after the judge decides or does her mental deliberation and decides what it is that she will impose for all or individually because remember that the sentencing can go, all of them get the same sentence or a different convict gets a different sentence based on the evidence that was presented in court.  But just for the public to understand a little here, what really happened today?  You see, it is called mitigation.  The four men came before the court convicted of the crime of murder.  Murder is a brutal crime.  So if you think about the people who are looking in from the outside, what do they see?  A murderer.  What really happens at mitigation is that the person’s life from birth through childhood, schooling and so on is presented to the court so that the judge, in the case of where there is a jury too, can get a look at the person‘s environment from where he or she came from and all other factors related to the person‘s development, from childhood to adulthood, or at least to the point where they were remanded.  That comes through the mitigation witnesses because if you look at it as how the court sees them at this time, you are looking at five convicted men and if you are looking at these convicted men then the court in imposing its sentence would go by what is before it.  But after it has heard the mitigation witnesses, that kind of might soften up what the court sees and prompt the court to give a lower sentence.  That is basically what happens at mitigation.”