98 Years From Armed Robbery?

Rene Lima-Marin left prison nearly six years ago after serving eight years for armed robbery. Since then he has not committed any crime but that's not stopping the United Stated government from trying to lock him up again.

According to the U.S government, a court clerk's error led to Lima-Marin's release in 2008...90 years too soon. Lima-Marin and another man were convicted in 2000 on multiple robbery, kidnapping and burglary charges in connection with two violent robberies of Aurora video stores when Lima-Marin was 20. Both men got a 98-year sentence.

Now, discounting the fact that Lima-Marin has been a model citizen for the past 6 years and that the government was the one who made the mistake to release him in the first place, one thing about this case caught my eye. This man was sentenced to 98 years in prison for armed robbery?

2 armed robberies of video stores net him 98 years? Now America has a reputation of being a country that like to lock its citizens up but 98 years for armed robbery? Do those video stores has nuclear radioactive materials in them or something because that's the only thing that make sense. I mean I'm saying this from Singapore, a country that no slouch in the excessive sentencing department. How the hell does a man get 98 years for 2 robberies of video stores? Is there any American readers of this blog who can enlighten me?

The government wrongly releasing Lima-Marin is one thing and I can understand why they want to lock him up again but that Lima-Marin sentence is obscene. Is there more to the case than what was reported in the news because murderers and people at Wall Street got far less than that.