Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: wrongfully charged

Your husband robbed a bank and, five years ago, he received a 20-year jail sentence. What's unfair about that? Is there a question here?

Re: wrongfully charged

A few thoughts:

1. I don't have enough information about why your husband was convicted of two counts of bank robbery, so I can't say whether the two convictions were proper.

2. People who commit a crime jointly can be convicted of all the acts involved, including the acts of the other defendants. If the carjacking was committed as part of the robbery scheme and was reasonably foreseeable to the other defendants, all three of them could legitimately be convicted for the actions of one.

3. One need not be held at gunpoint to be wrongfully imprisoned.

4. A 20-year sentence for the crimes you describe sounds perfectly reasonable to me. The requirement that your husband serve at least 80% of this time also sounds both reasonable and proper.

5. It is too late for your husband to appeal his conviction or his sentence. He probably had an appeal already, and the fact that he is still behind bars suggests that the appeal was unsuccessful (though portions of it may have succeeded).

6. Your husband may still have time to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but here again I would need more information. It is quite possible that he has already tried this and failed.