No one should have their life and career ruined for a mistake at the age of 18, **especially **if the victim forgives him.
This is an idiotic ruling morally and socially. I do not doubt that it is legally correct however, and to be honest fits in with what I know about US sentencing of black people.
Yep, *that’s *what this is about. Dude beats a woman, kicks her in the head repeatedly on separate occasions, then later texts her telling her he wish he’d done worse and then gets sentenced to prison. Amuricca is teh suxx!! :rolleyes:
Hell of a “mistake”. Ooops, sorry for accidentally beating the crap out of you. :dubious:
It apparently fits in with your xenophobia and preconceived notions about U.S. racial injustice. Three years (of which he’ll probably serve no more than half) for a vicious assault with threats afterwards is not an outlandish sentence, and I doubt you’d find many white punks getting off with probation for similar crimes.
You may also not have noticed that the victim was black.
I am at a loss for words over those of you who feel like some great injustice has been served by him going to prison.
This story is a very interesting read about somebody with true talent, who fucked up his life and his career. When somebody like Stoudamire says he was the best he’s ever seen, the kid had a real shot at money and fame. 5’11" and a 44" vertical leap. :smack:
The point I was trying to make is that the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crimes, to me. He beat someone up and made threats against them. Yes, its a serious crime, but worthy of jail? According to everyone that knows him, this is not a pattern of behavior that we needed to remove him from society for their protection. It was a guy who lost control of himself, and might benefit from honest-to-goodness attempts at behavior therapy. Putting him in jail for 3 years doesn’t help anyone, costs a lot of money, and hardens him up to be a much worse criminal when he gets out.
I just think the judge made the wrong choice here. Some people need to be removed from society because they can’t function in it. Do you think that’s applicable here? Should he really get the same punishment a fifth-time drunk driver gets?
I think I’m the only one who disagrees with the sentence in this thread so far. What do you think the punishment should be for beating someone up and sending threatening text messages to them, for a first time offense, when everyone (including the victim) testifies that the behavior isn’t typical of them?
You’re not the only one. Simple Linctus apparently thinks any punishment is idiotic and unjust.
Given that he was sentenced for Kidnapping, Felony Assault and “other crimes”, I’d say 3 years is kinda light but probably appropriate for someone without a criminal record (assuming he doesn’t have one, which I don’t know).
According to the Clark County prosecuting attorney, the average sentence for a man who murders his female partner is 2-6 years.
According to the NSW bureau of crime statistics, domestic batteries resulting in grievous bodily harm (inarguably a much worse offense than what happened here) receive an average sentence of 12.6 months.
That is why I think this particular sentence was much too harsh.
Or that the other sentences were laughably light.
All this does is make me think the other sentences are not harsh enough.
Three years is an extremely light sentence for Kidnapping.
Not really. Kidnapping charges in domestic violence cases are overwhelmingly dropped, because they’re charges just meant to intimidate the defendant. He pleaded guilty according to the advice of his attorney, even though nobody in their right mind would say he’s guilty of the same crime that a guy who ties you up and throws you in the trunk and keeps you in his basement for two weeks is.
ETA: The kidnapping charge came from him dragging her a short distance, and preventing her from leaving for a few minutes. When you think “kidnapping,” you don’t think “guy angry at his girlfriend who wont let her go.”
I’m sure you’re right. Y’know, unless you’re a girl it’s happened to, of course.
Sorry, I’m a bit of an idiot it seems. I hadn’t quite realised exactly what he’d done.
I still don’t think that this is the best way to deal with things but it’s certainly not the manifest injustice I thought it was before.
Beating someone up could be a moment of uncontrolled anger. The text message threats are** continuing** stupidity that could have been stopped at any moment.
Acting like an ass in the heat of the moment is one thing. Choosing to keep doing so well after that moment has passed is a whole nuther thing.
If he is the typical “I’m a sports god” type of guy I find this funny as hell.
This is ridiculous. I stand by my characterisation of the US justice system as unduly harsh as well as racist. That isn’t a xenophobic judgement unless you want to call any characterisation of a foreign justice system as being so. Surely you can see the statistics that show the US as being a huge outlier here?
Racist would be if I said the US system was due to some kind of deficency in the character of an average American. On the contrary, I assure you that while I certainly think these sentences are down to character flaws, they are not uniquely American character flaws. These silly sentences could almost certainly be sustained here in the UK under imperceptively different circumstances. Many morons here would support them. Hell there’d almost certainly be a death or even torture penalty here under a free vote if the question were phrased the right way.
The girl it DID happen to advocated for him. So, there’s that…
I saw that video and three things came to mind:
It has nothing to do with being an athlete. It has everything to do with him being a stupid kid.
I wonder if the only reason the victim ‘forgave’ him is in the hopes of a nice payoff down the road.