ThinkProgress links to an interesting story from AllGov.com:
[Tyler] Alred, 17, pled guilty to manslaughter after he drove his vehicle into a tree, killing a 16-year-old passenger, John Luke Dum. Alred had been drinking, but was not legally drunk. Because Alred was prosecuted as a youthful offender, Norman had more discretion in deciding the teen’s punishment.
The judge gave Alred a choice: he could avoid prison as long as he was willing to attend church for ten years, as well as complete high school, train as a welder, and give up alcohol, drugs and tobacco for one year.
Besides being unconstitutional, there’s an interesting statement about priorities hidden in this verdict: Alred is supposed to go to church for a decade, but he only has to abstain from booze and drugs for a year. What I’m taking from this is that it’s more important to be publicly repentant than it is to actually learn a lesson.
Wonder what happens if he picks a Unitarian church, say, or the nearest Sufi study center. What if he starts his own Taoist reading group?
Sounds like he can choose to go to prison if he is as offended as you are.
I hope he sues over this. No, he shouldn’t get off with no repercussions, but no judge should be handing out religious sentences without being kicked off the bench.
He can’t sue anybody. He can take the deal or he can leave it and go to trial.
The judge is way out of line, but judges are often way out of line.
If that’s not the definition of cruel and unusual punishment I don’t know what is.
Yo! Judge Mike Norman, Have you heard of the separation of church and state!
The 1st amendment clearly prohibits the establishment of any religion by the government.
Judge Mike Norman you are a fossil:
As for the constitutionality of his ruling, Judge Norman said, “I think it would hold up, but I don’t know one way or another.” WTF
“I sentenced him to go to church for 10 years because I thought I could do that.” WRONG
The article also noted that this is not the 1st time he has given out church sentences.
Good Luck to ACLU on dealing with this dinosaur.
-rant of the day-
So it’s okay for this kid to drink when he’s 18 when the rest of us had to (and still have to) wait until we’re 21?