Payette Transgender Woman Awaits Arson, Weapons Trial in Isolation
Boise Weekly
by Jody May-Chang
07 December, 2010


http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archives/2010/12/07/payette-transgender-woman-awaits-arson-weapons-trial-in-isolation



Monday, Dec. 6, Catherine Carlson, 53, was in Payette Country Court for a preliminary hearing after a psychological evaluation earlier this month deemed her competent to stand trial.

After over an hour of testimony by city and county officials and first responders to the July 11 incident where Carlson set fire to her Payette trailer, Judge A. Lynn Krogh, found "probable cause" to proceed with the case. Carlson is scheduled to be arraigned on January 7 where a trial date will likely be set.

Facing up to 40 years in state prison, Carlson said she sees herself a martyr for an issue she has been fighting in Idaho for several years: dignity and respect for transgender citizens.

Slightly off topic, but facing 40 years??

America seems to have an obscession with ever harsher sentences. Yet these appear to be doing nothing to stop crime.

You get numbers like that by taking each charge at the maximum, and then figure out how much time it would be if it runs consecutively, as opposed to concurrently.  Then the DA will offer her 10 years to cop a plea, which will turn out to be 6 with good behavior and all that.