quote:Um... isn't this a recommendation then to fix the prison system rather then not use prisons?
It's pointing out just what he's so blithely handing out, BlackBlade. For a nonviolent consentual sex act.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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The meat of the decision starts on page 15. The principle issue was whether the punishment was disproportional to the offense. The primary deciding factor was the legislature's change in the law to make this offense a misdemeanor, which, according to the Court, indicated a change in the evolving standards of decency. The court called the legislature's acts the best evidence of such changes.
I'm skeptical of this reasoning, because the legislature explicitly chose to not make the reduction in sentence retroactive. In other words, the best evidence of the changing standards of decency explicitly decided that this person's punishment should be 10 years.
I think the outcome is the just one - 10 years was way too long a sentence. But the reasoning seems counter-intuitive to me.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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