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Texas father rescues kidnapped 15-year-old daughter after tracking her phone’s location
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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Yes minimum. That means it is possible that the person who kidnapped your child will be back out of prison in 5 years. Thats no good.
Minimum sentences are there for a lower bound for the least bad version of a crime. "Aggravated kidnapping" would also be using a weapon to force a guy to drive you to where your stolen car is and give it back. The thirst for higher and higher minimum sentences because otherwise a judge is going to let a bad guy be set free after "only" a half decade is childish and has caused immense harm to our society.
The bloodthirsty pursuit of vengeance masquerading as "justice".
Yet most kidnappings are custody disagreements. It’s quite possible for a kidnapping to be a desperate parent wanting to be reunited with their kid. I’m not excusing such a choice but clearly that can be a mitigating factor and there might even be no danger or trauma to the kid.
Any time you insist on harsh minimum sentences for a crime, you potentially cause harm to cases where the crime isn’t as cut and dry
The vast majority of kidnappings are custody disputes between parents. For instance, one parent has custody, the other has visitation. And the parent with visitation takes the child out of town to see their grandparents, without asking permission first. Under the rules of their custody agreement, that is kidnapping.
Is that worth life in prison? Or even 5 years? Minimum sentences are the “zero tolerance policy for fighting in school” of the legal world. They remove any nuance or discretion, just so some lawmaker can say they are tough on crime.
That's ridiculous. It's possible the jury finds him not-guilty - does that mean you want people executed by police?
This is the penalty for a "class 1 felony" across the board. Not just this crime. So murder, etc.
Just because it's possible doesn't' mean its likely. You want the judge and jury to have a wide range of options to handle many circumstances. What if a mother who locks her autistic child in her room is found guilty of "kidnapping" even though she was acting in her child's best interest albeit in a way that was damaging? You may not want to punish her the same as a guy who grabbed a young girl off the street.