What’s wrong with this sentence?
Vincent J. Schodolski has a story in today’s Chicago Tribune about the unothrodox sentences judges sometimes impose on defendants. Here’s how it opens: There is a song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera “The Mikado” in which the title character reveals that one of his goals is “to let the punishment fit the crime.” It ...
Vincent J. Schodolski has a story in today's Chicago Tribune about the unothrodox sentences judges sometimes impose on defendants. Here's how it opens: There is a song in Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera "The Mikado" in which the title character reveals that one of his goals is "to let the punishment fit the crime." It appears that a number of judges around the country share that objective. In various jurisdictions and for various crimes, judges have ordered individuals to spend a night in the woods, act as a school crossing guard, stand along busy streets with signs around their necks proclaiming their misdeed and even watch a film about violent neo-Nazis, "American History X." Some of the judges involved said that they imposed these sentences to make criminals better understand the harm they caused or could have caused. This month, an Arkansas woman who passed a stopped school bus and struck and killed a child was sentenced to spend one day a year in jail for 10 consecutive years, with the date to coincide with the date on which the child died. Am I the only one who believes that ten days in jail stretched out over ten years is an extraordinarily lenient sentence for vehicular manslaughter? At first I thought this was an error in the Trib story -- but it's not: Tiffany Nix, 25, was ordered to spend every September 28 through 2015 in jail for the 2004 death of 9-year-old William "Isaac" Brian. Nix pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter and passing a stopped school bus. The judge ordered Nix to pay Isaac's family $5,694.62 for his funeral expenses. She will also be on probation for 10 years and must perform 400 hours of community service. The boy's father, Kelly Brian, said after the hearing that he and his wife, Shari, were satisfied with the sentence. Prosecutors had said Nix had opiates and amphetamines in her system at the time of the accident. She had initially been charged with negligent homicide, but prosecutors upgraded the charge after receiving results from laboratory tests. In a written statement included in a police report, Nix said she saw the school bus but did not see its stop sign. She said she did not realize the bus was stopped until she saw the boy running in front of it. Isaac's death prompted legislators to toughen penalties for passing stopped school buses. As an aside, those tougher penalties don't seem to be working. A question to the prosecutors in the audience -- given the circumstances, is this kind of jail time par for the course for a manslaughter conviction? [Do you have any better ideas?--ed. Well, my wife, upon reading the story, had the instinctive reaction: "Put her in solitary for a few years, but on the date the child died release her into the general inmate population and tell everyone what she did." But you should see how responds if the kitchen is really messy.]
Vincent J. Schodolski has a story in today’s Chicago Tribune about the unothrodox sentences judges sometimes impose on defendants. Here’s how it opens:
There is a song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera “The Mikado” in which the title character reveals that one of his goals is “to let the punishment fit the crime.” It appears that a number of judges around the country share that objective. In various jurisdictions and for various crimes, judges have ordered individuals to spend a night in the woods, act as a school crossing guard, stand along busy streets with signs around their necks proclaiming their misdeed and even watch a film about violent neo-Nazis, “American History X.” Some of the judges involved said that they imposed these sentences to make criminals better understand the harm they caused or could have caused. This month, an Arkansas woman who passed a stopped school bus and struck and killed a child was sentenced to spend one day a year in jail for 10 consecutive years, with the date to coincide with the date on which the child died.
Am I the only one who believes that ten days in jail stretched out over ten years is an extraordinarily lenient sentence for vehicular manslaughter? At first I thought this was an error in the Trib story — but it’s not:
Tiffany Nix, 25, was ordered to spend every September 28 through 2015 in jail for the 2004 death of 9-year-old William “Isaac” Brian. Nix pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter and passing a stopped school bus. The judge ordered Nix to pay Isaac’s family $5,694.62 for his funeral expenses. She will also be on probation for 10 years and must perform 400 hours of community service. The boy’s father, Kelly Brian, said after the hearing that he and his wife, Shari, were satisfied with the sentence. Prosecutors had said Nix had opiates and amphetamines in her system at the time of the accident. She had initially been charged with negligent homicide, but prosecutors upgraded the charge after receiving results from laboratory tests. In a written statement included in a police report, Nix said she saw the school bus but did not see its stop sign. She said she did not realize the bus was stopped until she saw the boy running in front of it. Isaac’s death prompted legislators to toughen penalties for passing stopped school buses.
As an aside, those tougher penalties don’t seem to be working. A question to the prosecutors in the audience — given the circumstances, is this kind of jail time par for the course for a manslaughter conviction? [Do you have any better ideas?–ed. Well, my wife, upon reading the story, had the instinctive reaction: “Put her in solitary for a few years, but on the date the child died release her into the general inmate population and tell everyone what she did.” But you should see how responds if the kitchen is really messy.]
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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