175 years in prison

[Cauliflowersqueeze]

For the gymnasts’ doctor in USA and an assurance from the judge he would not see daylight again.

Meanwhile Worboys out in 9 years from an “indeterminate” sentence.

Why is the UK system so tolerant?

The cock up was what (in terms of number of cases) he was prosecuted with.

I'm genuinely terrified as a lot of women not just for my dd my sister snd myself, but for womrn everywhere.
. I don't know where this beast is going to be lurking.
And if he does attack someone and Although I pray I'm proved wrong.
I honestly believe he will. No heads will roll for it. They'll be told to resign and receive a hefty pension.
Plus even if he is no longer a threat to women. 9 years for what 100 sex attacks is abysmal. It's no punishment at all.

We don't keep people in prison as long because we don't have the space in prisons or the money to keep them. As much as I'm sure any judge would want to keep Worboys locked up for decades they are bound by the fact we don't have as much room as the Yanks. Their prisoner numbers are astonishing, over 2 million...

US sentences are only long after trial. The vast majority of cases go to a plea deal where the sentence is much lower. David Simon's book 'Homicide' showed the madness of plea deals for murder where police were often arresting someone for their second murder because they'd served 5 or 6 years for their first one, got out and killed again.

I also agree with Namechange and Upstart. Life imprison is a harsher sentence than death. I read Norman Mailers book the Executioner;s Song a few years ago. I did not realise up till then that the US had stopped executions for more than an decade until that case where Gary Gilmore basically forced them to execute him because he found the idea of an endless sentence with no way out impossible to take.

Well if they weren't so quick to throw the poor soul who can't pay their council tax or the poor mother whose 15 year old son won't go to school in prison. Maybe just maybe they'd have the room.

I used to agree with the death penalty, but I don't any longer. It bails them out. I'd rather let them live and rot inside and be tormented by what they've inflicted on people. Plus it's very hypocritical to kill someone to show that killing is wrong.

English law baffles me, i had a friend who had a diabetic hypo at the wheel of his car and crashed into another car killing a man, he got 4 years in jail..... I have another friend who was attacked on a night out and killed with one punch and the guy got 16 months and served 8!!

Now i understand why my diabetic friend was sentenced - he knew he had diabetes and he knew he felt unwell but he was a mile from home and made the wrong decision and thought he would make it home.
But how is that worth nearly 3x as long in jail as walking up to someone and punching them in the face for absolutely no reason?
I think judges in england pull the sentence length out of a hat sometimes.

It is symbolic -so each person assaulted has punishment for the crime committed on them. It may seem mad, but I get it.

Exactly, and I don't think it is mad. I think 19 years for one rape and 5 sex offences when the police know you've raped hundreds is mad.

I think judges in england pull the sentence length out of a hat sometimes.

They really don't. There are guidelines for sentence lengths for every kind of crime - www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/

Your diabetic friend killed someone. He got in his car knowing he felt unwell and knowing there was a risk he'd pass out at the wheel, knowing there was a risk he could hurt or kill somone else. Not sure how you can excuse that. He decided to get in the car - planning, premeditation.

Killing someone with one punch - the logic will be that you can't reasonably expect one punch to kill someone. No planning or premeditation was involved. Also, perhaps the guy he hit had hit him first, had verbally abused him - hard to say without knowing all the details.

But judges' reasons for passing sentence are published every case - they have to justify themselves. So you could always look up the cases you mention.

Nassar only plead guilty to about 10instances in his plea deal and has another sentence in another county to be determined yet.
The 60years he got for images was the shocker to me compared to the 6months someone I know over here got (second offence including cat A videos). There ought to be some middle ground.

16 months reduced to 8 for manslaughter. . Mind you i don't know why I'm shocked. With our circus of a legal system.
To say that's disgusting is the biggest understatement ever.

This is a very interesting thread, op, but I'm going to have to hide it as I can feel the veins coming out my neck and steam coming out my ear with rage.

No matter how you cut the mustard a sentence longer than a human lifetime makes the law look ridiculous. Some years ago an American court gave someone consecutive life sentences without parole, and another gave 3,000 years.

*But judges' reasons for passing sentence are published every case - they have to justify themselves.^

No, most of them are not. Only high-profile cases.

salad i never said what my friend didnt deserve punishing - he made a judgement call, it was the wrong one and a man lost his life, that absolutely should be punished.

What i am saying is an unprovoked malicious assault in my eyes in far more punishable than a lapse in judgement.

Every sentence passed in the UK is based on strict, written sentencing guidelines. It is not the Judge just making it up as they go along.

That is also affected by what case the CPS has brought against the defendant. They have a duty to the public purse to prosecute for the crime most likely to succeed, which is why you often see convictions for "lesser" offences than what really happened = the chance of successful conviction for the graver offence is not as secure (or they plea bargained with defence counsel).

The Warboys case is unusual. I understand there has been a formal legal challenge by two newspapers to reveal the Parole Board's justification, with a possible view to a judicial review.

(Of course, there is nothing to say that Warboys simply managed to play the system extremely effectively and in that case, I am not sure what the Government can actually do. The fact he "might" will rape again is not relevant, given he is currently deemed to be rehabilitated and we are all innocent till proven guilty)

As the saying goes, the thing about our judicial system is that it is pretty much the worst one going, apart from all the rest.

There is a Stacey Dooley Investigates documentary on the BBC iPlayer at the moment about USA sex offender sentences and ongoing restrictions placed on them once they are released.

I found it hard to watch as she visits offenders in special 'villages' set up to house them and some of the shit they come out with made my blood run cold.

Stacey travels to Florida where sex offenders are punished forever. But do sex offenders deserve a second chance, or are their crimes impossible to forgive?

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05tjbkp/stacey-dooley-investigates-second-chance-sex-offenders

The American system is hard for us to understand. Having said that, our own system throws up extremely odd looking sentences all the time.

If you ever watch those motorway cop type shows you'll see some little scrote stealing a car, driving it like a maniac, resisting arrest, and abusing police. Then the voice over at the end says 'Steve got a two month suspended sentence and a six month driving ban' and you think what was the fucking point of bothering to arrest him.

American jails are huuuuuuge.

I watched the Stacey Dooley doc yesterday, what a very odd system.

Here is another judicial system that has left me speechless - Denmark. If any of you have seen in the news about the murder of the journalist Kim Wall, well they sentenced the man who murdered her this week. THIS IS DISTURBING so you may choose not to continue reading: Kim Wall had arranged to interview the man now charged with her murder on his submarine. He killed her on board, either by cutting her throat or strangulation but they can't be sure because he then cut off her head and dismembered her. Before he killed her he tortured her - her genitals had multiple stab wounds. They sentenced him this week to 15 years!!! 15 years!!! I have never been so shocked at a punishment not fitting the crime. Her killer should NEVER be allowed out of prison, he will always be be a huge danger to others and that sentence is an insult to the woman he killed. It's an absolute disgrace.

If you ever watch those motorway cop type shows you'll see some little scrote stealing a car, driving it like a maniac, resisting arrest, and abusing police. Then the voice over at the end says 'Steve got a two month suspended sentence and a six month driving ban' and you think what was the fucking point of bothering to arrest him.

I always think the same!! Where's the deterrent?

Morris - Love your user name - do you like David Lodge?!

It works out about a year and a half per victim. Not exactly much when you think of it that way.

Meanwhile in the good old UK, this man who had to have part of his skull removed and was left paralysed and needing constant care after a bouncer knocked him out has recently died. The bouncer's sentence? Two years.

Not saying the American system isn't flawed but ours is an absolute joke.

Dusty I've just been reading a news report about this case. It said that the accused is locked up awaiting trial which begins in March with a verdict expected in April, so he hasnt been sentenced yet. Prosecutors will seek a life sentence, and yes that means 15 years in Denmark. Which is appalling.
I know nothing of the Danish justice system, but hopefully he can be charged with multiple offences and have a much longer sentence? I can't see the Danish - or any - people tolerating such a lenient sentence.

I'm with Mission even if judges have to follow a strict criteria we have a piss poor and feeble judicial system.
I don't believe the US system is based on rehabilitation and is rather punitive. But over here you can murder someone and make it out by Christmas.

I am wondering that as life-lengthening treatments improve, we will welcome the fact that dangerous people got 200 year sentences...