Racism or a case of stricter sentencing due to prior records?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_re_us/girl_bandits

Answer 1

When you commit a crime while on probation or you have a history of drug trafficking you're going to get a longer sentence when you decide to rob a bank.  Nobody can really say it was racist here because of that fact.  If the men had no priors and got longer sentences you could argue racism.

Answer 2

Prior records had a lot to do with the sentencing, no where in that story does it say either woman had a record but both men do. I bet there next defense is that they got longer sentences because they are men and not women. People will try anything to cause racial tension in the government.