A Life Sentence for Flying a Plane

I have written earlier of the odd sentencing practices in the United States, but this one takes the cake: at an age when most people who committed murder in their youth have long since been released from prison, Cuban-American Antonio Bascaro has just been released 20 years early from a 60-year sentence that he couldn't have possibly outlived. His crime? Conspiracy to violate US drug laws that are on the verge of being repealed. He flew the airplane that carried marijuana into the United States. Yes, you heard me right: Sixty years--basically a life sentence for a man in his 40's--for smuggling weed. His real crime, as it turns out, was refusing to rat on his fellow smugglers: the federal prosecutors made sure that, as punishment for refusing to aid in their conviction, he himself was punished for all their crimes. A similar fate befell Timo Miller, who attempted to cooperate but wasn't willing to leave his wife's bedside at a crucial moment and was thus punished as if he had done nothing but resist.