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Saturday, July 09, 2016

Appeals Court Rules Salisbury Convict’s Life Sentence Illegal

SALISBURY — A Salisbury man, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal carjacking and murder of a woman in Wicomico County in 2009, will get a second chance after a state appeals court asserted his sentence was illegal based on a Supreme Court ruling handed down years later.

In 2009, Kenneth Benjamin Alvira, now 23, of Salisbury, was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed carjacking, armed robbery and other offenses for his role in the brutal slaying of a woman left for dead on a rural road in Wicomico County. Alvira and two others, both 19 years old, carjacked a woman, stabbed her and dumped her in a field, according to court documents. The victim, although alive when found, died soon thereafter. At trial, an acquaintance of Alvira testified Alvira admitted to him he killed the victim with a knife and then left her along a dark road.

In 2009, a Wicomico County jury found Alvira guilty of first-degree murder and other charges and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 30 years for the armed carjacking to be served consecutively. However, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case a sentence of life without the possibility of parole was not appropriate for juveniles under the age of 18 in most cases.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The sentence should stand because it was a legal sentence at the time of the crime. Any new sentence guidelines should take effect at the time and after the change in the sentence guidelines. This is what you get when Liberals wants votes. This is why the crime rate has increased. Law breakers are not punished so they feel bullet proof to keep up the life of crime. Life is better than dying but dying will be justified for murdering some else.
You do the crime you do the time. Reduce crime with a meaning.

Anonymous said...

"...the transient immaturity of youth."
Yes, that explains it all.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
The sentence should stand because it was a legal sentence at the time of the crime. Any new sentence guidelines should take effect at the time and after the change in the sentence guidelines. This is what you get when Liberals wants votes. This is why the crime rate has increased. Law breakers are not punished so they feel bullet proof to keep up the life of crime. Life is better than dying but dying will be justified for murdering some else.
You do the crime you do the time. Reduce crime with a meaning.

July 9, 2016 at 10:14 AM

oh my lord. now you people know more than judges.

Anonymous said...

And what do judges know? What case law did they put forth on this argument? They interpret (make up) laws as they go along. This POS should die in prison for what he did.

Anonymous said...

Well now , let's see how the new Matt will react to this.

Anonymous said...

Should use the Hillary defense.....Didn't intend to.

Anonymous said...

He broke God's law and society's law by committing murder. The proper punishment is death.