By the title, you would think this is just another 12 Years a Slave story line. Well, in a way, it is -– but this time it’s happening in 2014. Rene Lima-Marin, a Colorado man who served 10 years in prison for armed robbery, is being sent back to prison for, get this, 98 YEARS!
A judge determined that there was a clerical error in the case, which did not require the man to serve his charges separately. When the charges ran concurrently, Lima-Marin, along with his lawyer, anticipated his maximum sentence would be 16 years. Now, a judge is saying that the charges should not have run concurrently and each charge needs its own time, running back-to-back and totaling almost 100 years.
Lima-Marin served his then-determined time and has since made a new life for himself. He is a husband and father of two young boys, 7-year-old Justus and 4-year-old Josiah. In an interview with Fox 31 Denver, Lima-Marin expressed his frustration and anger regarding his new sentence. He says that the people this will affect most will be his family, who have nothing to do with the crime he committed when he was only 19-years-old. He knows that this newly determined sentence is unjust and unfair, especially considering that people have raped, murdered, and committed other heinous crimes but may only serve 15-25 years at most.
This man’s freedom is now being taken away, again. After turning his life around, never being disciplined in prison his first time, and staying on the straight and narrow path after prison, Lima-Marin must face his deepest fear –- returning to prison. He never wanted to do anything that would risk his freedom and take him from his family –- and he did not -– but the so-called justice system seems to think otherwise.
[Image: KCTV5]