http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton
On September 29, 1978, Singleton picked up 15-year-old Mary Vincent of Las Vegas while she was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California, raped her, and then hacked her forearms off with a hatchet, throwing her off a 30-foot cliff outside of Modesto, California. She managed to pull herself up the cliff and alert a passerby, who took her to a hospital. By the time Singleton was arrested, Vincent was fitted with prosthetic arms.
At Singleton's trial six months after the assault, Vincent faced her assailant and relived the traumatic ordeal in court. Her testimony helped convict him. As she left the witness stand, he swore he would kill her. Although the judge said he wished he could send him to prison for the rest of his natural life, Singleton received a 14-year sentence, the maximum allowed by California law at that time.
While Vincent won a $2.56 million civil judgment against Singleton, she was unable to collect it when Singleton revealed that he was unemployed, in poor health, and had only $200 in savings.[5]
Along with the particularly gruesome and callous aspects of the crime, the case became even more notorious after Singleton was paroled after serving only eight years in prison. He was paroled to Contra Costa County, California, but no town would tolerate his presence, so he had to live in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin until his parole ended a year later.[2]
According to TIME, "as authorities attempted to settle him in one Bay Area town after another, angry crowds screamed, picketed and eventually prevailed."[6] In Rodeo, about 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, a crowd of approximately 500 protesting locals were up in arms and forced officers to move him under armed guard from a hotel room. He was removed from one apartment in Contra Costa County in a bullet-proof vest after 400 residents surrounded the building to protest a decision to place him there permanently.[7] Governor George Deukmejian ordered that Mr. Singleton be placed at San Quentin for the duration of his one-year parole. The outrage at this sentence resulted in legislation, supported by Mary Vincent, which prevents the early release of offenders who have committed a crime in which torture is used: in 1987 Singleton's parole led to passage of California's "Singleton bill", which carries a 25-years-to-life sentence. (Harrower, 1998). The leniency of the legal system shocked and outraged many. One journalist who interviewed him remarked, "What was most surprising to me, however, was not his sentence. It was that Larry Singleton had worked his crimes around in his mind so completely that they did not warrant punishment at all."[8] Right before Singleton's parole ended, Donald Stahl, the Stanislaus County prosecutor at Mr. Singleton's trial said, "I think, if anything, he's worse now. He has not taken responsibility. He lives in a bizarre fantasy land and acquits himself each day. He doesn't accept his guilt and resolve never to do it again."[9]
