From the AP via NBC 4 in Washington, D.C.: Jury Recommends 135 Years For Man Who Sold 6 Pills [emphasis mine]:
A Dickenson County jury has recommended 135 years in prison and a $600,000 fine for a man they convicted of selling six prescription pills.
The jury deliberated about an hour Thursday evening before convicting Jody Bill Powers, 49, of selling two pills on three different occasions within 1,000 feet of a school.
The sales happened in 2005 and involved OxyContin and morphine. Powers sold the drugs near the apartment complex near Haysi, where he lived.
Dickenson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Short said the sentence is the most harsh he’s heard of. Short said he thinks people in southwest Virginia “are sick and tired of drug addiction.”
The final decision on the sentence is left to a judge, who will consider the jury’s recommendation when he sentences Powers on Dec. 13.
Like, I said, this is a little too much.
Too bad we can’t get verdicts like this in Caroline County because Harvey Latney won’t attempt to get jury trials for drug charges. Instead, they get five years with five years suspended in a bench trial. That’s really going to stop the drug problem in the county.