An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Crime and Punishment
Two judges’ creative sentences disallowed
A state appellate court this week ordered two East Tennessee judges to get back inside that legal box they had stepped out of to fashion novel sentences.
While lauding the sentiment behind their sentencing decisions, the state Court of Criminal Appeals in separate opinions rejected the judges’ creative punishments as legally improper.
Pfft! What I’m finding in today’s courts, is a LACK of creativity in punishment. Mollycoddling criminals isn’t working. If judges can hit criminals where it hurts most, then perhaps there wouldn’t be a repeat of the offense.
The first case that drew appellate rebuke this week involved Johnson County resident Glenn E. Pressinell, who had been caught masturbating while watching his 8-year-old neighbor and her 7-year-old friend.
As part of Pressinell’s punishment, Judge Lynn W. Brown ordered Pressinell to move at least a mile away from the neighborhood. In an opinion delivered by Judge James C. Witt Jr., the appellate court opined that Brown’s decision was unduly harsh.
Harsh? Uh…no. I don’t think so. The old codger is damn lucky he’s not under the jail! The appellate court is worried about the pervert not living with his wife? If he was in jail, he wouldn’t be living with her anyway. What difference does it make? Perhaps having to sell his house in the current market would be a real good way to deal a blow to the old SOB perv!
The second case that drew appellate condemnation was Campbell County Criminal Court Judge Shayne Sexton’s decision to force a man whose reckless driving caused his stepdaughter’s death to pay for her funeral expenses. The opinion, delivered by Judge Jerry L. Smith, does not detail how Stanley A. Gagne’s reckless driving caused April Jones’ 2005 death.
According to the opinion, Sexton ordered Gagne to pay East Jacksboro Baptist Church more than $6,100 in funeral expenses and to pay Woodlawn Cemetery the roughly $4,500 purchase price of a gravestone.
And just why shouldn’t he be made to pay for all the expenses? If he is the cause of the child’s death, then he should be scraping the bottom of his pockets for every last dime to show her the respect he couldn’t be bothered to show while she was alive. Contrary to what the appellate court judges think, in the long run, it’s not actually compensation for the church, or the cemetery. It’s actually a smart down payment for the death he caused by his reckless actions.
There’s an old saying, ‘let the punishment fit the crime’. In some cases, there is no way to reflect the actual damage done, so occasionally, a monetary punishment works just fine. In the case of the stepdaughter’s death, should the man die in the same manner has the child? Well, that would be kind of hard to do, wouldn’t it. Unless, of course, you put him in a car with a child driving, and there’s no guarantee the child wouldn’t die as well. With the old pervert? Well, nothing seems appropriate, except forcing him to move away from children.
Just my 2 cents.
