Houston Police Dept granting immunity for murders

[tehsolace]

So basically the story goes that Coral Eugene Watts kills 26 women in the 1970s and 80s in Houston, TX and never gets caught. Then in 1982, he was caught in an attempted murder of a women in her apartment and convicted of burglary.

They couldn't prove that he was the murderer of the 26 other women, but they were almost certain it was him. So, they agreed to grant him immunity to the murders if he confessed to them. He would then be sentenced 60 years for the burglary he was caught in. He agreed and confessed to each murder, explaining in detail how he did it.

In 2006, he almost gets out early for good behavior! Wouldn't that have been swell... a confessed murderer of 20+ women being released into the city.


My question is, am I the only one that thinks its totally outrageous that someone can be granted immunity to a murder just by confessing??

 

[Solaris]

source please

 

[repiV]

So basically the story goes that Coral Eugene Watts kills 26 women in the 1970s and 80s in Houston, TX and never gets caught. Then in 1982, he was caught in an attempted murder of a women in her apartment and convicted of burglary.

They couldn't prove that he was the murderer of the 26 other women, but they were almost certain it was him. So, they agreed to grant him immunity to the murders if he confessed to them. He would then be sentenced 60 years for the burglary he was caught in. He agreed and confessed to each murder, explaining in detail how he did it.

In 2006, he almost gets out early for good behavior! Wouldn't that have been swell... a confessed murderer of 20+ women being released into the city.


My question is, am I the only one that thinks its totally outrageous that someone can be granted immunity to a murder just by confessing??

Yet if the offer was not on the table, they wouldn't have been able to prove it was him and he never would have confessed. So he wouldn't have received his 60 year sentence for "burglary" and he would have received no punishment at all.
The only outrageous aspect of this is the circumstance that made it necessary.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

source please

.

char.

 

[Tyguy]

thats complete bullshit that he could of gotten out early. Im assuming they chose the immunity thing seeing as he would be in jail for the rest of his life....but christ..thats pretty messed up

 

[The Monkey]

60 years for burglary?

Here you get out after seven years most of the time if you murdered someone.

 

[tehsolace]

source please

Its a pretty popular story... you just have to google his name.

http://www.google.com/search?q=eugene+watts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Eugene_Watts

60 years for burglary?

Well I was trying to summarize the story, but basically he got 60 years for burglary and possible attempted murder.

Yet if the offer was not on the table, they wouldn't have been able to prove it was him and he never would have confessed. So he wouldn't have received his 60 year sentence for "burglary" and he would have received no punishment at all.
The only outrageous aspect of this is the circumstance that made it necessary.

He was caught and convicted of the burglary and attempted murder, so he would have received punishment either way. The reason the police dept gave as to why they wanted to give the deal was because the cases were "cold cases" and wouldn't have been solved unless he confessed. Basically I think it was an excuse to clean out old cases. But you can see how it backfired and he almost got out due to good behavior! They should have never been allowed to simply grant immunity like that in the first place.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

60 years for burglary?

Here you get out after seven years most of the time if you murdered someone.

And you get 20 if you killed a minister of foreign affairs. But anyhow, I'm guessing they tacked on a hugely over-sized jail sentence due to the fact he was actually a serial killing ****head, and since he was damn lucky to not get the death sentence he probably never made a fuss.

 

[repiV]

He was caught and convicted of the burglary and attempted murder, so he would have received punishment either way. The reason the police dept gave as to why they wanted to give the deal was because the cases were "cold cases" and wouldn't have been solved unless he confessed. Basically I think it was an excuse to clean out old cases. But you can see how it backfired and he almost got out due to good behavior! They should have never been allowed to simply grant immunity like that in the first place.

Isn't it obvious that he got 60 years for "burglary" because he was unofficially being punished for the murders he committed aswell?
That's not a reasonable punishment for burglary, by any stretch of the imagination. It's two or three life sentences.

 

[PortalStormzzzz]

Crime is a deal. If your good, you make lots of deals. It's the way the system works. More then likely he'll never see a street corner without a cop on it though.

 

[iizbl4ck]

I can see how he got 60 years for burglary and attemped murder becuz obviously they were "unofficially" punishing him for all those murders. but how can he almost get out due to "good" behavior.