Armed robbery charged for taking gun of abusive stepfather. Lance Saltzman gets life.
One afternoon, Saltzman’s stepfather, Tony Minnick and his mother were in the midst of a heated argument. The stepfather retrieved his gun from the bedroom, pointed it at Saltzman’s mother, and fired it near her.
Officers took the gun, for which the stepfather had a permit, but returned it to him a few days later. No charges were filed.
According to Saltzman and his mother, shortly after his weapon was returned, the stepfather pulled the gun on her again and threatened to kill her.
When no one else was home, Saltzman removed the gun from his stepfather’s bedroom. According to evidence presented at trial, Saltzman subsequently sold the gun to a friend.
“As far as I’m concerned, I would be dead right now if he hadn’t taken the gun.” his mother said at the trial.
Saltzman was sentenced to mandatory life without parole at age 22 under Florida’s Prison Releasee Reoffender Law because he committed the crime within three years of his release from prison for a burglary he committed when he was 16.
According to Saltzman, prior to trial he was offered a plea deal of five years; he says his attorney never explained to him that he faced a likely life sentence if he was convicted at trial.
Saltzman’s mother was shocked by her son’s sentence. “He left the house with a gun… because he feared for his and my life,” she said. “It was a home he had lived in his whole life. How do you burglarize your own home?”
In an affidavit filed with the Palm Beach County Court, Minnick argued for a reduction of his stepson’s sentence: When Lance was suspected of stealing my firearm, I had never intended to report more than a grand theft offense. Had I known the State of Florida would prosecute this offense as one of a burglary which would expose Lance to being incarcerated for life, I never would have reported the offense to the police, as it was only a grand theft, at the most.
“In my heart,” he told the court a few years after Saltzman was imprisoned, “Lance Saltzman should not have a life sentence…I feel Lance has done enough time in prison for the crime he committed.”
Saltzman’s incarceration has been devastating for his mother, who told the ACLU, “I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I’m 91 pounds because of this, because I am sick to death over what they are doing to my son. I’m dumbfounded over the whole thing.”
Compounding her mental anguish, Borg says she is broke from paying her son’s legal fees and can no longer afford an attorney to represent her son.
Saltzman told the ACLU, “I was just trying to do the right thing. I didn’t burglarize my own house; I lived there my whole life with mom and dad and brother. I shouldn’t have a life sentence for going into dad’s bedroom.”
He has now been in prison for nine years. In this time, he has taken a number of courses and participates in a faith-based program. “I was 21 years old at the time [of the crime],” he said. “... I will remain in prison until I die…Now I ask, has justice been served?”
Read full story at ACLU Special Report. A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses.
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As voters, citizens, taxpayers and bystanders, we as a society have inhumanely punished thousands of nonviolent people. Currently Washington DC and 30 states have compensation statutes for wrongfully convicted inmates. Congress’ recommended amount is $63,000 for each year served. On the other hand, overly sentenced victims who in many cases have suffered equally or worse typically receive $20 and a bus ticket if they are fortunate enough to ever be released.
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