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Life in Prison for Woman who forced 13-year-old boy to fondle her
Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2010-05-01 16:08
Story here. If a man would have gotten the same punishment withy the same facts, then great. Would he have? I dunno. I do know this: it is nice to see the sexual abuse of boys by women now finally getting some serious attention from at least one court. Excerpt:
'While obviously deeply moved with her plea and confessing dismay at why no plea bargain was ever offered to the Twin falls woman, Memeo had no choice but to sentence the 34 year old Taylor to the only sentence allowed by the legislature-- Life in prison with the earliest possible parole after ten years.
...
Taylor was convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14 in November after a week-long trial.
According to Kirkpatrick the woman had been offered no plea bargain and that the jury had not been informed that the life sentence would be imposed on Taylor should she be found guilty.
In 2007 the Nevada Legislature removed any discretion from a judge in the sentencing of lewdness with minors and set a blanket mandatory life sentence for all offenders convicted of the crime.
Since then well over 95 percent of defendants originally charged with the crime plead guilty to a lessor charge with a greatly reduced penalty.
“Why you were charged with these crimes particularly, I don’t. know,” Memeo said. “Why plea bargains are offered to some and not to others, I don’t know. I do know that you were charged and found guilty for this charge by a jury and this is the sentence. Good luck.”'
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Comments
Captcha sucks!
First off, I hate your horrible, Captcha sign in b.s. I had to try five times, just because the letters they show are so illegible you can't make them out, and they don't even give you an option to request other numbers and letters when they post illegible numbers and letters. Again, I absolutely hate that thing. Captcha, or whatever it's called, sucks!
Second, here is my response to that article:
"It's about time our gender feminized courts exhibited some equal justice as it regards the historically disparate charging and sentencing of males and females. Court officials and police are trained by America's Violence Against Women Act to be prejudiced against men and excuse abusive, and/or violent, women as we clearly saw in the Duke lacrosse team rape-witch-hunt fiasco conducted by ex-DA, Mike Nifong. It's past due in America that violent and abusive women be held far more accountable for their behavior than they have been, including false accusers of rape, domestic violence and other crimes being used as scams by many women. Let's just hope this case was not an aberration, but the beginning of a trend, where women in criminal courts will be held as responsible for their malfeasant behavior as men are.
As far as previous ad hominem attacks by posters, those attempts to discredit posters, instead of addressing the issues in this article appear to me to be a pitiful excuse for rational debate."
As fascinating as this aberration is....
....It will not hold up on appeal. The judges own words in applying the sentence set this woman up for an appeal and she'll win for two reasons:
a) A life sentence for fondling regardless of the gender of the perpetrator is absolutely ludicrous and
b) The fact that she is a woman will gain her sympathy and with luck get the whole damn law overturned and return discretion to the sentencing judge as lewdness is not going to destroy anyone's soul and irreparably damage their life no matter how distasteful the offense may be.
While I am all for men and woman receiving the same sentence for the same crimes, in this case I do not feel the punishment fits the crime as I do not think ANY victim would be irreparably damaged by the offense of lewdness and therefore do not feel a mandatory life sentence should be the only punishment. I don't think life should even be on the table as an option for mere lewdness.
manonthestreet I have
manonthestreet
I have contradictory feeling. I have no sympathy for this woman. On the other hand I don't think what was done was a crime.
Don't mistake my words for sympathy Trotter
Like I said I believe in fairness and I do not believe a persons gender should play a role in determining sentence for a crime. So in that respect I am glad she received the same sentence a male would have if convicted.
However, I think a mandatory life sentence for such a crime is ridiculous as I am not of the school of thought that thinks harsh punishments serve a purpose as a deterrent against future crimes. I do not think people are thinking about what will happen if they get caught when they decide to commit ANY crime - they are thinking about how committing that crime will benefit them. I wholeheartedly believe that as a society we could make any and all crimes immediately punishable by death and there would be no reduction in the crime rate because the people who fear the consequence would not have committed the crime in the first place. Tough on crime laws win votes but make no difference at all in the rate of crime in the society enacting them.
'No such thing as a half way crook' as the saying goes.
Dealing with crime from the sentencing end of the equation is like fixing your cars engine after it has seized because you never changed the oil and having no intentions of ever changing the oil in the future after your engine is fixed. Did you solve the problem by fixing the engine? Sure. Did it cost more then a lifetimes worth of oil changes? Yes. Will the same problem reoccur? You bet.
I would not go so far as you to say what she did should not constitute a crime, nor would I assume you will gain much support for that position, but I certainly do not think it is a crime that has even the potential to cause life long suffering to ANY victim (regardless of age, gender, or circumstance) and thus do not feel a life sentence should should even be considered a fair sentence for lewdness of any variety let alone a mandatory sentence.
Call me Mr Insurance company if a victim of fondling or lewdness claims to be scarred for life. My answer would be 'Sorry your application for special benefits is denied due to your pre-existing mental health condition. Please call one of the following numbers to find some one in your area to talk through your issues with and our sincere best wishes in your future'. If lewdness scars someone for life, it's their own issue for not dealing with their own mental health concerns, cause a normal human being is perfectly capable of moving on with their life in a productive and healthy manner after experiencing an act of mere lewdness. Maybe a little counseling to put things in their proper perspective would be needed for victims but I'm not buying the life long emotional suffering routine from anyone over an act of lewdness.
My comments were more of a commentary on the laws in this one particular State then this particular case. Though the presiding judge did do his best in his wording when applying her sentence to make sure that sentence gets overturned on appeal, which I am not certain he would have done if the convicted individual were male.