Longtime Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham Jr. has finally made a statement concerning last Friday's tragic shooting. Graham is basically blaming the Department of Corrections for the alleged shooter's ostensibly short sentence.
Let's look at the most glaring of Graham's misstatements:
"It's my understanding he was given 75 days good time for every day he served."Looking at this step by step...
365 days in a year
3.650 days in 10 years
Now let's divide 3.650 by 75. What do we get?
Just under 49 days.
In other words, if Bryce Graham's statement had any validity, Brian Martin would have served under two months in the state correctional system.
In actuality, an inmate serving a sentence for a Class B felony of not more than 15 years receives 75 days credit for every 30 days he serves. Quite a difference.
Could the district attorney's office have made sure Mr. Martin served ten years in total? Certainly. That stipulation should have been added to the plea agreement. It's not that unusual, but without it a prisoner is eligible for both parole and Correctional Incentive Time. Let's not blame the DOC for not being able to read Graham's mind.
DA Graham also mentioned that Martin shot three police officers. Really? Who was the third?
If these are the kind of prosecution errors we can expect in the upcoming trial, we can only imagine the number of appeals this case will generate.