Joshua Bevill Was Crushed With 30 Years in Federal Prison, for a Low-level Nonviolent Offense

Austin, Texas Nov 4, 2021 (Issuewire.com)  – Joshua Bevill made misrepresentations to 3 high-net-worth investors, causing a combined loss of $106,000, a relatively minor nonviolent offense. As a result, Joshua received 30 years in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system. He’s been in prison for nearly 12 years, with nearly two decades to go, a senseless sentence that serves to warehouse him.

How? 

Joshua has two cases, both predate prison time. In his earlier (2006 – 2008)case, he received the harshest sentence allowed under the law, five years in federal prison.

In his present (2011) case, he was looking at a sentencing range of about five years in prison. At sentencing, however, the judge took all of the conduct used in Joshua’s earlier (2006 – 2008) and applied it to his present (2011) case, increasing his sentencing range by a literal lifetime, from about five years in prison to life in prison, yielding a disproportionately harsh prison sentence that has little connection to Joshua’s present (2011) case, decades in prison for a $106,000 fraud—an unduly harsh and purely punitive prison sentence that serves one illegitimate purpose: to incapacitate Joshua.

There is no parole in the federal system. Joshua is serving more time than most people who murder and rape humans. What Joshua did was illegal and merits punishment, but his sentence is overkill. And Clemency exists for such irrational sentences.

In a March 1, 2012 Sentencing Memorandum federal prosecutors told the judge that such a long sentence would serve only to unfairly incapacitate Joshua, who, according to the prosecutors, was neither likely to reoffend nor a danger to the public upon release.

This kind of double punishment is unprecedented. No good can come from locking Joshua in a box for 30 YEARS because he made misrepresentations to 3 high-net-worth investors, causing a combined loss of $106,000.

It’s senseless. Joshua’s case is featured on The Justice Project Texas website. His only shot at freedom is Clemency. 

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