The law of unintended consequences seems inadequate -- the consequences could have been -- should have been -- foreseen.
We may have no way out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. The upcoming release of some fairly violent criminals from our state prisons may have all the frightening inevitability of a runaway mountain freight train heading for a hairpin curve in the tracks.
What we're caught in seems clearly like a case of legislative carelessness.
Back in the 1970s, the General Assembly decided that a "life sentence" in North Carolina meant 80 years. On the face of it, that's not an unreasonable limit -- a man or woman sentenced to life in prison at, say, even 19 is unlikely to be a danger to society, if even alive, when 80 years have elapsed.
But then a few years later, the legislature's Fair Sentencing Act essentially cut those earlier sentences in half and included provisions for time off for good behavior, among other things.
So an enterprising inmate, Bobby Bowden -- who was convicted of two murders -- pursued a novel argument in court. His life sentence, given all of those legal provisions, is up, although he's only 60 years old and very much alive.
The state's highest courts have agreed, logically enough, if we read the trail of laws correctly. Now Bowden is among prisoners sent away for life for violent crimes are likely to be free later this month.
It is true, as Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall pointed out, many older inmates are less inclined to crime. But Woodall also noted that "a person who has been in prison for a violent crime, and has gotten infractions throughout their time incarcerated, that's the best predictor for the future behavior."
Many inmates set to be freed this month do have many disciplinary infractions on their record, but still qualify for good behavior and other credits to speed their release.
The courts have ruled, the legislature's actions are clear if muddled in their inception, so it doesn't uphold the rule of law to wish for vigilante justice to upend these releases.
But this situation ought to be a clarion reminder to the Legislature to anticipate carefully the result of its actions.
