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(OT) Martha Stewart decides....


USMCBillsFan

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5 months in jail for trading a few thousand shares two days before the info became public??? Show me any other case where anyone EVER received this much jail time (or ANY jail time) for this level of offense.

 

She didn't kill people you know...

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Meanwhile,Ken Lay,the President's buddy stole BILLIONS of dollars and he is still walking around.Betcha he gets a slap on the wrist......

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Thanks for providing the simpleton viewpoint of the issue.

 

btw, I'm sure you have the same opinion of Global Crossing and Terry McAuliffe .

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Thanks for providing the simpleton viewpoint of the issue.

 

btw, I'm sure you have the same opinion of Global Crossing and Terry McAuliffe .

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You're right to point this out. Both the Democratic Party led by McAuliffe and Kerry and the GOP led by Rove and Bush are ripping off the middle-class of America bigtime.

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5 months in jail for trading a few thousand shares two days before the info became public???  Show me any other case where anyone EVER received this much jail time (or ANY jail time) for this level of offense.

 

She didn't kill people you know...

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People have received far more jail time for crimes which have been done providing more harm to the criminal than to society as a whole all the time. A big part of Stewart's appeal is to question the consitutionality of the "truth in sentencing" laws which mandate jail time for her doing the crime of lying to investigators (the sthing she was convicted of rather than insider trading which is generally overlooked or punisjed with a fine.

 

Stripping judges of the discretion to give lighter sentences has become politically popular as many judges have decided not to have society pay to jail drug users and because they would push for medical treatment of the addiction rather than punishment in jail as a mechanism for solving this problem. The answer to your question is that their are tons of examples in our courts today of citizens who were given jail time for drug offenses which seem correctly to be a lesser level of offense to society.

 

Lying to the public officials we empower to apply our laws is a criminal offense regardless of the crime. The impacts of lying are heinous and inexcusable whether the outcome is trying to beat the rap on intoxification or undermine free-market trading. One can debate which is worse but clearly lying is bad. However, it is clear from the sentencing guidelines that the problem here was not that Martha was treated differently than other people who lied to public officials, but that she was treated the same and this approach seems disproportionate to the harm done to society or solving the problem.

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