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Posting #220 – Life Sentence for Second Base: Does Punishment Fit the Crime?Date: 05/04/2010 Life Sentence For Second Base: Does Punishment Fit the Crime? A jury found her guilty of having inappropriate contact with a 13-year-old boy, in a case Michelle Taylor’s lawyer says was no more than mere fondling. But because of a relatively new change to Nevada Law, the Elko County woman ends up getting life in prison. Taylor was convicted by a jury in November for lewdness with a minor under 14. The jury found her innocent of statutory sexual seduction. The jury, never allowed to know there’s a mandatory sentence. Legislators Amended NRS 201.230 back in 2005. The Sex Offender Law originally had two sentencing options for people convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14: serving 20 years with the possibility of parole in two years, or a life sentence with the possibility of parole in ten. Lawmakers voted unanimously to remove the 2/20 sentence, leaving only one option. District Court Judge Mike Memeo, "Defendant is sentenced to life, with minimum of parole eligibility in 10 years." And with that, the harshest sentence ever dealt to a female convicted of her first sex-crime in Nevada. Taylor’s public defender Alina Kilpatrick maintains the sentence is unconstitutional, “I practically begged (Memeo) not to impose it. I knew that it was coming because the judge’s hands were tied by the legislature.” The sentence is a hard pill to swallow for Kilpatrick, since she cited cases in the trial like Douglas County’s Stacy Thoman who admitted to incest with her own daughters. But who will only serve 20 years with the eligibility of parole in five. “Saying that every sex offender, every one that’s convicted of lewdness with a child under 14, deserves the same sentence is like saying that I should wear the same size shoe as a 7 foot tall man.” The big difference in the two cases? Thoman was able to make a plea deal. Elko County District Attorney Gary Woodbury says, “If you think that we just cavalierly charged this lady with a life sentence with parole in ten years, we don't." Woodbury says Kilpatrick didn’t want any plea deal which involved Taylor registering as a sex offender. Kilpatrick, "I think the District Attorney will try and say they tried to deal, but the record is very very clear." This excerpt from court testimony on November 3, 2009: Deputy District Attorney Chad Thompson: “No the state has extended no offer.” Kilpatrick says Taylor shouldn’t be required to register as a sex offender because she’s not a predator, "The forensic psychiatrist who evaluated her stated that it was her finding that Michelle Taylor was at a quote 'low risk to reoffend.'" Sarah Johns, “Do you think this is justice? Do you think this punishment fits the crime?” Woodbury, “You know, how do you talk about justice without talking about what happened to the victim? As I said before, most folks think that this is just a lark for a 13 year old boy. This was no lark for him. ... Yeah. I think she got justice.” Kilpatrick, “The judge should have been able to take into account the circumstances of the case. And he can't, which is why this sentence is unconstitutional.” Woodbury, "I don't agree that the Nevada… legislature should have made this a mandatory sentence. I think it's dumb. But they didn't ask me about that." The legislature voted on the sex offender bill unanimously. Senator Bill Raggio, who sposored the bill with a handful of others says, "You know, you draft the law because of the more serious cases, and you can't always forsee that something maybe far less could come under that condition." Kilpatrick plans on appealing the sentence to the Nevada Supreme Court Our Sex Offender Laws are CRAZY, April 29, 2010: |
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