Let the Punishment Fit the Slime

Via Volokh, an Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison for spitting at a police officer. Good thing he didn't flip the bird, too… he might be facing the chair.

Comments

[David]

Previous convictions...beating his wife...real class act. As far as spitting on the officer - well, geez, he's just a freakin' moron for doing that. Probably doesn't deserve life in prison, but that was just really, really stupid.

[Anonymous]

Hey what's going on here? I pasted the beginning of Reuters' report on this story into the "Atleast he's not a wife beater" thread & it suddenly disappeared. And now it reappears from a different news source. Is Julian Reason's own Jayson Blair?

[MP]

Any chance SCOTUS will overturn this on the same grounds as Lawrence? This is clearly a case of getting f*cked up the a**. Well, probably not, since it wasn't consensual.

[Julian Sanchez]

The thread is still there: http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/002017.shtml#002017

As for "Reason's Jayson Blair"... it depends. Can I get a book deal out of it?

[LM]

He gets life in prison for spitting on an officer and *possibly* transmitting a disease (which it turns out he had none).

Now don't get me wrong, spitting on people is rather grotesque, but getting life in prison for *possibly* threating someone safety beyond gross-out factor? Well hell, anyone can *possibly* commit a crime. Suppose the next time some one looks at my car I should have them arrested because they *could* have been wanting to steal it.

Assumption and punishment comes before proven fact. Hell, we should just attach hospitals to prisons and wheel all newborns into their individual cells for life. Better to stave off *possible* crime before it happens after all.

[Anonymous]

Julian - sorry, sometimes my vision disappears.
btw - from latest reports, it sounds like everyone is backing away from deals with JB.

[Warren]

"Marquez, arrested several months ago, could have received one year in prison and a $3,000 fine for wife beating, according to the Creek County court clerk's office."

OK that's three grand and a year for beating up your wife and lets see.... Whot oh! Sez here you spit on a cop. Sorry pal the suns never gonna shine on your poor ass again.

[Anonymous]

So we're back in 1603, where the punishment fits the crime.

[Anonymous]

What?! A 400-year setback? No-o-o-o! Please, no!

[Billy Oblivion]

Don't worry about the 400 year setback, we've still got dentristy, anti-biotics, and refridgerators.

[Lefty]

I guess Robbie Alomar was lucky.

[matt]

hmm nice lesson here...beat your wife we'll give you a year in prison at the most, but spit on a cop and you get life. that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Of course it makes sense: Cops care about wives, don't you know?

[F. Foote]

RETRACTION.

(It was I who posted the above sarcasm about "caring.")

Not fair to policemen -- most of whom are decent, hard-working custodians of disorder.

My sarcasm should've been directed at the judge who made that life-sentence decision about the culprit "placing bodily fluid upon a government employee."

[Dakota Loomis]

Point of clarification: Would the judge or the DA be the person deciding what charges are brought against the spitter? I'm assuming that's the DA's duty, not the judges. Though, the judge can dismiss charges. I guess that's why I need the clarification.

And does the judge have any descretion in sentencing? The story said the jury made the life in prison recommendation. The Oklahoma statute does not list any punishment and I can't find Oklahoma's sentencing guidelines on the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission's homepage. I've spent too much time on this already.

[Andrew Lynch]

This story makes me laugh out loud, like, lol (but for real, not fake (bfrnflol)). Thanks, Julian, for catching this one. It's starting to worry me that I come to Reason for hot, steamy didacticism AND my daily giggles.

[Connie Merced]

DON'T MESS WITH ROYALTY

Would the jury have given him a life-sentence if the culprit had "placed bodily fluid upon a Microsoft employee." ?

[Tom Hynes]

"Placing bodily fluids on a government employee" - Is a White House intern a government employee?

[Anonymous]

Not yet. So he gets a pass.

[no cigar]

Did he really get a pass?

Oh, yeah, that's right ... He "never had any relations with that girl."

[Joan A. Goldenburg]

Thats what he gets for not paying for the blow job.

[Anonymous]

Joan Goldenshower, do you really PAY for a blowjob?

[Alex]

Some aggravating circumstances, it seems -- like two prior felonies, and biting to go with the spitting

[Dan]

He get's convicted of doing three bad things and he never leaves prision? And one of those things is spitting a cop. Or biting while spitting?

One of them was rape. That merits life in prison, preferably with a big cellmate fucking him in the ass.

[Robert Nabors]

Still, life in prision?

He get's convicted of doing three bad things and he never leaves prision? And one of those things is spitting a cop. Or biting while spitting?

Give me a break.

That is bullcrap.

-Robert