A 20-year-old D.C. man just got 85 years in prison for a campus mass shooting — proof the justice system can deliver real consequences when it wants to, even as serial offenders with dozens of convictions cycle through the courts and back onto the streets every day.

Marquis Brown was convicted in May of five counts of attempted second-degree murder and related offenses for the October 2023 shooting at Morgan State University, according to Baltimore News. Five people — four men and one woman between 18 and 22, including four students — were shot on campus just days before Homecoming. All survived. Brown faced up to 259 years; he got 85. Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates called the university "one of the crown jewels of Baltimore City" and said parents entrust the city with "something more precious than anything else — the safety and well-being of their children."

Bates is right about the responsibility. The question is why that responsibility is selectively enforced.

Consider Jeramie Croft. The 42-year-old Boston man was sentenced this week to 2.5 to 3 years in state prison after pleading guilty to a string of Home Depot thefts totaling $7,000 in stolen merchandise — drills, nail kits, wire, circuit breakers, and at least one wheelbarrow he used to haul out other loot, the Boston Herald reported. Croft has more than 80 convictions on his rap sheet, including more than 20 shoplifting charges. Eighty convictions. Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden acknowledged that "some individuals require a much different approach" and called the prison sentence "entirely justified." What took so long?

Then there's Derrick Gathers. The Georgia man shot South Carolina Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. B.A. Frazier in the face at point-blank range during an April 2023 traffic stop, WIS10 reported. Gathers had several prior felony convictions — including third-degree rape and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in New York — which legally barred him from possessing a firearm. The gun he used was stolen out of Georgia. After shooting the trooper, Gathers fled 18 miles before crashing in a residential yard. He was convicted by the state in May 2025 of attempted murder and related charges. Now federal prosecutors are requesting the maximum consecutive sentence of 15 years for the felon-in-possession charge, arguing Gathers "routinely returns to dangerous criminal activity immediately after being released from prison."

Fifteen years. For a previously convicted rapist who shot a cop in the face with a stolen gun. The federal maximum request is 15 years. Brown got 85 for shooting five people who survived. The math doesn't add up — unless the system simply isn't trying most of the time.

A second suspect in the Morgan State shooting, Javon "Chewy" Williams of D.C., was indicted June 10 and linked to the city's Kennedy Street Crew gang, Baltimore News reported. He was in federal custody before being charged locally. His pre-trial conference is set for August 31.

The system can punish. An 85-year sentence proves it. The question ordinary Americans are left asking is simpler: why does it take a mass shooting to get the machinery working, while felons with 80 convictions and rapists with stolen guns get the revolving door?