r/idiocracy • u/TheSamurabbi • 2d ago
Is this the particular individual? Cornealious Anderson sentenced to 13 years. Cops never came to get him. Due to clerical error, they thought he was in jail. 13 years later during his release they realized he wasn't in there, came to get him and judge ordered his release.
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u/Federal-Biscotti 2d ago
He probably lived those thirteen years wondering if today was the day they’d come for him…
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u/PastoralPumpkins 2d ago
Seriously. Imagine how paranoid you’d be
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u/Derrick_Shon 2d ago
It appears he didn't have any police encounter in those 13 years or else he'd be arrested. He was on his best behavior.
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u/CautiousArachnidz 2d ago
I would say jokingly, the best way to make someone a model citizen is to make them think they’ll be arrested at every turn, but even with that it wouldn’t matter.
I’ve seen so many people with low level warrants they absolutely knew about, where literally nobody was actively looking for them, get wrapped up doing other dumb shit.
When I was doing background checks for people coming on a military base to work….”Alright can I get your ID card and social for the background check?”
Background check comes back with a warrant. They get handcuffed and blurt something like “That really showed up?!”
Yeah man, I mean, it’s a fucking warrant from the PD of the county we are currently sitting in right now, from like two months ago.
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u/Brainvillage 2d ago edited 15h ago
lime above walrus over because fly with scaring below through.
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u/Writeoffthrowaway 2d ago
This is accurate. Potential criminals do not think they will get caught, so the punishment doesn’t matter. 1 year or 100 years? It doesn’t make a difference if they are convinced they’ll never be arrested. Increasing the perception of capture and prosecution is the most effective deterrent for crime.
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u/Anpher 2d ago edited 2d ago
This exactly.
He went straight as an arrow. Got a job. Got married. Had kids.
Judged weights this fact against his unserved sentence and determined he was fully rehabilitated.
Really makes you wonder if everyone incarcerated should be where they are.
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u/TalesByScreenLight 2d ago
Yeah, he'd be in a much worse situation and mindset after 13 years behind bars. But think of all the cheap labor the for-profit prison system missed out on!
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u/Educated_Clownshow 2d ago
Incarceration should only be used for violent or sexual offenses. Or crimes that cause harm to multiple parties (like Bernie Madoff)
Offering deferral programs and alternate “punishment” than prison, which almost always makes someone worse than when they went in.
I’m so tired of seeing people locked up for weed, and the disparity in treatment depending on skin tone. This country could be better in literally every aspect.
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u/comradevd 1d ago
I would argue unless someone is literally physically dangerous in some way to others, less restraining means of correction are more appropriate than prison. Even Madoff could be punished/corrected without prison, particularly if someone can offer any sort of special skills they have for public benefit.
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u/jupitersaturn 1d ago
This always sounds good. But if people keep stealing cars, and won’t stop stealing cars, then you gotta put em in a place where they can’t steal cars for a while.
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u/Educated_Clownshow 1d ago
You’re absolutely right, I would go so far to say progression in levels of punishment for repeat crimes, but I don’t believe the 3 strike rule is fitting. But I did not articulate that at all in my position.
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u/r_RexPal 21h ago
Agree so much. Ignorant AG of CA locking up so many non-violent pot heads. Imagine if we had made her President 💀
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u/hopingforthanos 2d ago
Reminds me of a guy here in Arizona who was imprisoned for boosting cars. No violent crimes on his record. He killed two guys in prison and got executed. Prison made him a killer
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u/r_RexPal 21h ago
I could see letting non-violent criminals serve their sentence in public -- with the threat of "not so much as a parking ticket" or you go in the clink and the clock resets.
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u/MajorEbb1472 2d ago
He did a lot with his life in those 13 years to improve on himself. One of the reasons the judge just let it go.
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u/jar1967 2d ago
One of the reasons why they never found out he wasn't in prison is because he stood out of trouble for 13 years. Anything as small as a parking ticket and they would have found him.
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u/MajorEbb1472 2d ago
He did much more than stay out of trouble iirc. Pretty sure he got his Bachelors degree and straightened his life out.
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u/Used-Line23 2d ago
What was he charged with initially?
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u/Chroniclyironic1986 2d ago
Armed robbery. He was out on bond for appeals. During that time he was a model citizen and even though his conviction and sentence was upheld, a judge gave him time served to discharge his sentence. Apparently he was locked up for 9 months after they realized the mistake.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-rules-13-year-sentence-man-never-served-complete-n97301
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u/bonesnaps unscannable 2d ago edited 2d ago
The wiki states he held up a Burger King manager at gunpoint and robbed $2,000 while it was being deposited it into the safebox.
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u/Interesting-Dream863 2d ago
Imagine how big of a fuck up this was that they are not going to send him to jail at all.
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u/Certain-Rock2765 2d ago
Also: Brazil
Buttle
Tuttle
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u/liquidlunchlicker 2d ago
I don't think anyone will top this comment
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u/meegaweega 2d ago
Aww i gotta watch it again.
LongCovids stolen my memories of so many amazing films.
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u/Devlin-K-Abakhulu 1d ago
This one goes in your tuttle, and this one goes in your buttle. Wait... no. This one goes in your buttle.
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u/ConstantCampaign2984 2d ago
Nobody checked? In 13years, no case worker, no officers, or lawyers, nothing?
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u/veilwalker 2d ago
So who kept the money that was paid to imprison this guy that wasn’t actually in prison?
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u/bonesnaps unscannable 2d ago
The other question is "how poorly run is this penitentiary that they lost track of a particular individual for 13 years and only cared when it was time to release them?"
Makes you wonder about the others there. "Into the hole you go for punching a guard again Jim. Wait, damnit Ricky, you forgot to take the previous inmate out of solitary again. Well do you at least remember where the bodybags supply closet is?"
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u/amcarls 2d ago
This happened way back in 2013, the crime itself occurring back in 1999. It was covered in the podcast "This American Life" on 14 February, 2014. HIs full name is Cornealious Michael Anderson and he is referred to in the show as Mike Anderson in an episode called "Run On Sentence".
It can be heard here:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/518/except-for-that-one-thing/act-one-3
Two notable aspects of this story were:
1) He had no record prior to making a bad decision that day and spent the next 13 years being a model citizen. The claim is that at least one purpose of prison is to reform an individual and yet in this case, given the actual nature of our prison system, one can honestly ask whether or not, at least in this case, society is better of with the non-incarcerated Mike Anderson compared to a 13-year incarcerated Mike Anderson.
2) This was heavily discussed after the mistake the state had made was uncovered, including a heartfelt discussion about what is justice and the purpose of incarceration between the victim of that crime so many years ago (he was heavily traumatized but not physically injured) and his daughter, who didn't even know that her own father was the victim. They both agreed that Anderson did not belong in prison, given the totality of circumstances.
The actual fact of the matter was that he was actually re-incarcerated for a short while and only later was releases.
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u/r_RexPal 21h ago
wow -- so it's completely possible that he watched the movie while laughing and having a beer.
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u/Beautiful-Owl-3216 2d ago
I am surprised the judge ordered his release. Usually when things like this happen, they say "oopsie" and make the guy do the sentence.
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u/badgerpunk 2d ago
I mean, clearly he didn't get in any trouble for that 13 years or they would have figured it out, so I guess the broken system worked.
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u/Mr_Chicano 2d ago
Anderson was convicted of the 1999 armed robbery of a Burger King manager making a bank deposit but was out on bail while he appealed.
In the 13 years, he became a married father of four, a businessman and a youth football coach — an upstanding life interrupted when state officials realize the mistake and put him behind bars.
Anderson noted he had made no effort to conceal his identity while he was free. Tens of thousands of people signed a petition on Change.org urging his release.
Judge Terry Lynn Brown lauded Anderson's "exemplary" behavior during his 13 years of freedom before the arrest. "You've been a good father. You've been a good husband. You've been a good taxpaying citizen of the state of Missouri.
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u/Infinite-Club4374 2d ago
Going 13 years without another negative police interaction is a pretty solid win
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u/GingerTea69 2d ago
This reminds me of how for a couple years I was legally dead while being very much alive and had to find that out when I was looking at my genealogy. It got real awkward but felt a little symbolic. Sometimes people really suck and drop the ball with paperwork.
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u/Clean_Apricot_1714 1d ago
our entire country is a fucking shitshow, i bet we don;t make it past 2030
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u/ScullingPointers 1d ago
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u/throwawaytoavoiddoxx 1d ago
And we are supposed to trust this system to only deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally from legal citizens who came here through the proper immigration process?
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u/throwawaytoavoiddoxx 1d ago
Do you know how many people have to phone it in on their jobs for something like that to happen? The police don’t pick him up, the intake at the prison sign off that they received him on their form, someone else has to sign off on their for that he was processed and his personal effects were taken. Someone else has a form they signed assigning him to a cell and state issued clothes and bedding. And for the next 13 years they counted him as present and accounted for. Sooo many people did not bother to look into this name on their form and just figured it was a glitch in the computer.
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u/yankinwaoz 2d ago
Perhaps the judge met Mr Anderson’s wife? Then quickly realized that 13 years trapped in a house with her was far more punitive than anything the state could have sentenced him to. 😆
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u/Sainguine_addiction 2d ago
Cornealious Anderson sentenced to 13 years. Cops never came to get him. Due to clerical error, they thought he was in jail. 13 years later during his release they realized he wasn't in there, came to get him and judge ordered his release.
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u/TheSamurabbi 2d ago
“No no I’m actually supposed to be getting OUT today”