Friday, May 26, 2006

World Going to Hell: Short Man Convicted of Assaulting Child gets Probation

OK, folks, time for my conservative stream to once again rear its ugly head.  I am going to say that, in my opinion, a court in Lincoln Nebraska we went far too easy on 50-year-old Richard W. Thompson, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12 year old girl over a two month period, but was only sentenced to 10 years probation, with electronic monitoring for the first 4 months of that sentence.

You got that right: this poor excuse for a human being assaults a 12 year old girl and doesn’t serve a day in jail!

What’s worse is that he isn’t getting a light sentence because of extenuating circumstances or because the crime wasn’t as horrible as it sounds when but in those terms.  Thompson is getting the light sentence because he’s 5’1” tall, and Judge Kristine Cecava felt he wouldn’t survive in prison because of his diminutive stature.  She even told him that he deserved a long prison sentence but he was too small to survive in prison.

As far as I’m concerned, any person who would assault a 12 year old girl once, let alone over a 2 month period, stealing away her innocence and any hopes she may have at a normal childhood and life, deserves to have their little major put in a guillotine and left to find a new regiment in the trash heap. And I don’t care what his height is, send the asshole to prison, and hope that he feels even some of the fear that girl must have felt.

To me, letting this guy walk is a crime! Lock him up and throw away the key. Give him two cellmates both named bubba and tell them both that they’ll get a year off their sentence to make Thompson their bitch. Because this pond-scum Thompson deserves whatever he gets!

A Bit More

After writing this I was pretty heated up. I came back and looked at my post, and realized there was other material that should be included but wasn’t essential, and were basically outside of the scope of my general anger at the topic. So I’ll add it here, for those interested.

For example, Amy Miller of the Nebraska ACLU said this:

No one has ever come to the ACLU to complain of height discrimination, she said. And using Thompson's height as a reason to avoid sending him to prison is surprising, because neither the U.S. or state constitutions provides protections based on physical stature, she said.


This came from Joe Mangano, secretary of the National Organization of Short Statured Adults:

"I'm assuming a short inmate would have a much more difficult time than a large inmate," said Mangano, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall. "It's good to see somebody looking out for someone who is a short person."


Prison system spokesman Steve King had very interesting comments:

"He's not the shortest guy we have in prison," King said. "We've got some short guys that are as tough as nails. We've got people from all ages, physical stature of all sizes, in general population."

There are protections available in prison to help inmates who feel threatened, King said, but to his knowledge no one has ever taken advantage of them based on fears related to their height.


And Carol Durham of the Pottawattamie County, Iowa Jail, said Thompson’s troubles in jail would derive from his crime, not his height.

"Due to his size, I really don't think so. Due to his crime, probably," Durham said. Durham said other inmates so sometimes target child molesters.


Finally, from the blogosphere, Christopher Largen says this before posting the contact information to contact the judge who presided over the case:

I wonder how small this predator's child victim was. I also wonder if Judge Cecava has given similar rulings when it comes to short people convicted of NONVIOLENT crimes, like prostitutes, drug offenders, etc. Somehow I doubt it.


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Posted by Scottage at 4:48 PM / | |