Felony Torture

Via Andrew Sullivan, a little news item from California:

The couple, Daniel Weston and Mary Ann Parmelee, and three other people are accused of luring their two victims to an office where the men were tied up, held for hours and beaten, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney said. . . .

Each count of felony torture, defined as inflicting "great bodily injury" for the purpose of "revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose," carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Defense lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

So a civilian can get life in prison for doing things not one percent as heinous as things our former administration did to people we are now releasing from Guantanamo because there is no evidence for holding them.