The legal system in general is very strange, and difficult to understand at times in Texas. If you're charged with a crime, found guilty, or plead guilty, there is a sentencing. However, it seems that sentencing varies greatly.

Certain crimes seem to be happening more and more often in Amarillo these days, and one of them is extremely concerning considering the amount of children in the city.

Sex crimes have been on the rise in the city, or at least arrests for sex crimes have been. There has seemingly been a focus on these crimes within Amarillo as more and more people have been arrested for committing these crimes.

In most cases, if you sexually abuse a minor, you're going to go away for a while. That does indeed seem to be the standard, the bigger question is for how long. However, there was recently a case where someone pleaded guilty, and the punishment for the crime was extremely confusing.

THE CRIME

Marcus Justin Lane recently pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a girl under the age of 14. Yes, that would mean this girl hadn't even reached high school yet. He pled guilty, so the only question that remains is how long will he spend behind bars for his crime.

How about no time whatsoever? In what would appear to be the plea deal of the century, Lane will avoid being jailed as long as he stays out of trouble for 10 years. His technical sentence was 10 years deferred adjudication.

WHAT IS DEFERRED ADJUDICATION

It's a big fancy term right there, so we need to understand what it means in Texas. In essence, it is a type of probation that tends to be offered up to first-time offenders in order to avoid jail time.

If the defendant meets the terms laid out by the court, the charges will be dropped entirely and the case would be dismissed. Now, if they break the terms of the court, they are immediately sent to jail to serve their sentence.

THE COMPLETE SENTENCING

Aside from receiving the maximum sentence under the adjudication laws of ten years, Lane also received some other perks for pleading guilty.

Two other charges he had against him, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and a second count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, were both dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

THE AFTERMATH

This one feels like a slippery slope to be sliding down, as it seems sex crimes, especially those involving minors, is on the rise in Amarillo. What are we telling these criminals by handing out a sentence like this? That it's ok to do it one time and as long as you plead guilty you'll basically get away with it?

I'm not going to sit here and say I know exactly what happened in this case. I didn't follow it, nor was I in the courtroom for the proceedings. However, I just find it strange that for something we consider such an absolute no-no of a crime, we hand out sentences like this.

Executed Death Row Inmates from the Texas Panhandle

The following individuals were convicted of Capital Murder for crimes committed in the Texas Panhandle (Amarillo and its surrounding areas) and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Read a brief summary on the area's executed Death Row inmates.

All information and photos have been taken from TDCJ and court records.

Gallery Credit: Sarah Clark

The 17 East Texans Who are Currently Sitting on Death Row

Although dates for execution have not yet been set, some of those East Texans on this list have been there for a long time--surprisingly long, actually.

Gallery Credit: Tara Holley

More From KISS FM 96.9