.

Today was the day Bernie Madoff faced a federal judge to learn his fate.  Neither the judge nor fate was kind.  He received a 150-year prison term for what U.S. District Judge Denny Chin referred to as “extraordinarily evil” misdeeds.  Many of his victims, some one-time millionaires in their own right and others just looking for a way to stretch their nest eggs so carefully cultivated over a lifetime, took the opportunity to be sure the 71-year old crook understood exactly how his actions affected not only their lives, but those of their family members as well.

The gallery in the courtroom agreed with the judge’s sentence as applause erupted.  The judge also told Madoff and his lawyers that he’d received over 100 letters and emails, and not a single one was kind or supportive of Madoff.  Judge Chin said, “The absence of such support is telling”.

Nine victims chose to address Madoff in today’s hearing.  Some of the comments included Madoff being labeled a “monster” and an “evil low life”.  One victim said he stole money so he and his wife, Ruth, could live a life of luxury beyond belief. 

Since the federal prison system has offers no parole, Madoff will die in jail.  To date, there are thousands of victims - individuals, charities, celebrities and other businesses - who are out billions of dollars.  Many say this one Ponzi scheme is one of the reasons the American economy is in such dire straits.

Madoff did have a statement and chose to face those he scammed as he said his apologies, noting he knew it didn’t help. 

His wife released her first statement through her own lawyer that said, in part, “I am embarrassed and ashamed.  Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused.”  It can be read in its entirety here.  Still, she will spend the rest of her life with a 2 million-plus dollar nest egg while many of those victims are now being forced to move in with family members after having lost everything.

Maybe one of those victims said it best outside court, “He stole my money.  He didn’t steal my life.”

While reading through the crime and punishment page of several websites, I came across one of those stories that are on every one of those news pages, and once again, I’m left asking, “Are you kidding me?!”

A woman in Ohio was convicted of killing her one year old daughter by microwave oven. I never thought I’d type all of those words into a single sentence. I don’t know which aspect of this is more infuriating: the fact that she was able to smile and wave to her family on the way out of

China Arnold

the courtroom, reminding us of Casey Anthony’s display during one of her court appearances or the fact she used being drunk as her defense. Her attorney said of his convicted client, “We’re relieved an innocent person didn’t receive the death penalty.” The fact his client was convicted pretty much eliminates the option of referring to her as “an innocent person”. The jury wasn’t able to agree on the appropriate punishment, thereby instantly limiting the judge to use her discretion for the punishment.

Frankly, I’m trying to understand how the jury locked on a case such as this. It’s now up to the judge, who has a few options in terms of sentencing her, the death penalty not being one of those options. I wonder about that too. Why can’t the judge impose the death sentence? This judge’s hands are tied, and it’s not known if she’d have even considered that punishment, but I’m not sure that’s such a good thing when a judge’s powers are determined by a jury’s inability to come to a unanimous decision.

To further complicate this, her defense was contradictory in some ways. It was first argued that her father abandoned her as a child, but that she had a normal and loving childhood - the argument being, “why would a normal person commit murder?” It was also argued that she was drunk when her baby was killed; but again, her attorney said that he couldn’t understand how a “normal’ person could even be accused of this. I don’t know how normal that is, but the attorney said so with a straight face.

Of course, there’s the ever-present cell mate who happily provided testimony of a confession made while in jail. After the jury came back and announced it was locked on whether she should receive life in prison or the death penalty, there was a brief love-fest in the courtroom between this woman and her family, followed by a family declaration on the courthouse steps reiterating how much they love her and how they had hoped for a different outcome because they all believe in her innocence.

If you’ve never researched the damage a few seconds…and I mean literally - a few seconds….can do to the human body, do yourself a favor and don’t. I wish I hadn’t. There was a young child who testified he saw another child go into an apartment, and a few seconds later, the microwave sounded indicating it had stopped. This little boy’s mother was then called to testify and said her child was nowhere near this apartment complex at the time the baby was killed.

The district attorney insists she placed this child in a microwave for two minutes because she was concerned her boyfriend would discover the little girl was fathered by someone else. Let’s just hope her other three children don’t fall through the cracks and are able to build a somewhat normal life despite knowing their mother was convicted of murdering their younger sister.

** Criminal cases related to dui that got the most attention from Criminal lawyers from our Services.