While this is not meant as an attack against my fellow CCers, I will point out that in the past I have railed against those articles where judges have creatively sentenced convicted criminals outside of what the law has specified, i.e. making drunk drivers stand on a street corner wit signs announcing their crimes.
It's not the form of punishment I object to it is the act of a judge imposing sentences not prescribed by the duly written laws.
Why?
Because THIS is where it eventually ends up:
Judge Weinstein, who sits in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, has twice thrown out convictions that would have ensured that the man spend at least five years behind bars. He has pledged to break protocol and inform the next jury about the mandatory prison sentence that the charges carry. And he recently declared that the man, who is awaiting a new trial, did not need an electronic ankle bracelet because he posed “no risk to society.â€
Judge Weinstein has gone to extraordinary lengths to challenge the strict punishments, issuing a series of rulings that directly attack the mandatory five-year prison sentence faced by defendants charged with receiving child pornography.
“I don’t approve of child pornography, obviously,†he said in an interview this week. But, he also said, he does not believe that those who view the images, as opposed to producing or selling them, present a threat to children.
“We’re destroying lives unnecessarily,†he said. “At the most, they should be receiving treatment and supervision.â€
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/nyregion/22judge.html?partner=rss&emc=rss**** what he thinks. This dictator is abrogating OUR RIGHT as a free people to representative government.
When judges get cute with the law they aren't protecting the rights of the accused/convicted; they are taking away your rights.
