really shocking story from us - 17 year old boy sentenced to 10 years for getting oral sex from a 15yr old!

[Aloha]

American justice is evil sometimes. I feel quite upset about this boy.

Another case in today's times about a mother and stepfather both going to prison for over two years for allowing 16 year olds to drink some beer at a birthday party at their house. www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/ article1913167.ece

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/ article1913168.ece

ack, 'is evil sometimes'

It would like if I took the Ian Huntley case and said all Europeans are wacko murders of innocent children.

I am so appalled by this I don't really know what to say

No, it is nothing like that! What a ridiculous comparison.

This would never happen here. Never. What kind of legal system puts a 17 year old in prison for TEN YEARS for having a blow job...and nobody can do a bloody thing about it?

'I find lots wrong with UK society and justice, but compared to the US I think we are paragons.'

Just as the Borders Bill will go for its second reading before the House of Lords on Wednesday. A bill which gives police powers to the Immigration Service and excludes them from any sort of accountability.

If the police detain you, you have the right to speak to a lawyer. Not so if the Immigration Service detain you. If you obstruct an Immigration Officer, you are subject to automatic deportation, but nobody has defined what 'obstruction' means.

I lived in america for a year when I was 18 on a gap year scholarship to a school in the Midwest. A high school not college. The entertainment at weekends often consisted of someone with fake id buying as much alcohol as possible, then everyone [kids from 16 to 18 all with own cars] driving to a parking lot and then drinking as much as possible out of bottles wrapped in brown paper bags before getting into their cars and driving off. There are a lot of great things about the USA obviously. And some not so great things. There is a real head in the sand attitude towards the teenage drink [and drive] problem that leads to hypocritical situations like this court sentence.

Quite right expat. This is dreadful. However, I stand by the thought that the US justice system is so much more skewed against the poor and the vulnerable that ours is - and that makes the UK system (dreadfully flawed though it is) sooooo much better.

Oh, yes, a system which lets murderers out on the street in record time is great!

A system which allowed a monster like Peter Tobin to plea bargain his way out of the utterly horrific rape, sodomy and attempted murder of two teenage girls so that he was out on the streets and able to rape and batter and stab a 23-year-old Polish student to death (he's also being investigated for a number of unsolved rapes, murders and the disappearance of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton from West Lothian back in the 90s) is really a model of excellence.

and yes i do find America truly terrifying sometimes. Even a very sweet close friend i made out there at school told me towards the end of my stay that the reason the native American Indians were so often unemployed and alcoholic was because they were lazy and thieving.

yes that was terrible expat.

I feel so gutted for Angelika Kluk's father .

He raised her and her sister alone as a single dad.

She was the light of his life.

That man had no business out! He ruined the lives of his teenage victims in England - one became a drug-addicted prostitute following her rape, she just couldn't cope.

but ruty, you can find people with similar opinions about minority groups all over the world, it's not limited to americans

Expat, apparently in California criminals can be let out early if prisons are overcrowded - stat quoted in the paper today says seven murders were committed by people released early in that state over the past couple of years. So there's nothing peculiar to England about the Tobin case- could easily have happened in the US.

Surely everyone can see there's lots very, very wrong with those two cases? There's plenty of criticism about cases in this country, why get on your high horse when someone posts about an injustice in the US?

Who said I was on a high horse, edam?

These threads always go one way. Every single time.

America is bad, wrong and evil. All of it.

It gets old, like these silly threads about peoples' clothes or looks.

Yawn.

I'm done.

This will go the same way as the rest of them.

i'm sure hana, but America calls itself the Land of the Free, which is a bit ironic to say the least. I did enjoy my time there and met some great people, but one should be allowed to point out problems.

Actually, people were talking about the people involved until someone came in steaming because there seemed to be some criticism of the legal system that created these obvious appalling injustices.

Oh please, expat, I never said anything about it being a model of excellence - deeply flawed, I think you'll find. And I am appalled by the Tobin case, as you are.

My problem with the US justice system is that the most vulnerable in society are the least well protected, and often the most harshly dealt with. If you are poor, you have no $$ for a good lawyer, so you atre forced to settle for a public defender. These are often (though not always)young/inexperienced, vastly over-worked and far less talented than the private laywers those with lots of money can hire.

(and I love America - have lived there for a while and have a degree in US studies

"And today it is still legal for an Englishman standing in England to kill a Welshman standing in wales with a bow and arrow."

Someone told me this once and swore to me that it is still true today. IF it is, then I'd say Europe has some pretty stupid laws.

I 'd put my house on it not being true or at least not applicable.

That's not true. It would be murder.

Eleusis,
It is only legal in a churchyard (I think, in a certain place and on a certain day! It's one of those old laws that have never been altered!

Agree with Aloha, people were just saying how terrible these cases are - and they are - and sympathising with the poor families until one person steamed in with accusations of America bashing. OTT and missing the point hugely.

good news here
sentence overturned

at least it would be good news if they let him out of jail