Montana judge unrepentant after sentencing man to 60 days for repeatedly raping his own 12 year old daughter

Exactly how I feel. 100+ likes.

12 Likes

Thanks, typing by hand is always a risk. Darn, probably he missed it now.

I guess it’s okay to put away black kids’ dad’s for any old reason. They must not need strong father figures in their lives. SMFH😡

7 Likes

Well this one hasn’t been publicly labeled as such for the sake of protecting his daughter’s identity but I bet it hurt his feelings pretty bad when the prosecutor kept using the R-word like that.

3 Likes

What are you saying here?

3 Likes

Loving this site. Thanks for the link.

4 Likes

I archive-binged through the whole thing last week. Should be required reading before getting into legal arguments on the internets. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

And once they finish the Constitutional Law bit, that part should be mandatory for anyone who is running for any sort of office.

Not that anyone would run for office without knowing what the Constitution says…

7 Likes

I’ll agree. Mine was more of a response to people who want him to suffer the rest of his life (or possibly end his life). Does that solve the problem?

I don’t know the guy, nor do I know his family members. Maybe he truly is repentant, maybe not. I think he should definitely get a lot of psychological evaluation and help, and I’m not adverse to having some truly significant community service.

But there are a lot of responses given by people who know very little about the situation. Or at least they only know what I know, but they seem to be much more sure that this is sufficient.

Raping a 12 year old girl is not a thing to take lightly. There are some crimes, non-violent drug offenses among them, that deserve to be treated with far less severity than they are. It strikes me as a serious miscarriage of justice to give a guy with some weed more time than a guy who raped his own child.

I’m all for rehabilitation, therapy, help for the guy. I am not for a slap on the wrist so his sons can have a father. This isn’t about retribution, it’s about laws that actually protect people from predators.

21 Likes

That poor girl, does she have no one standing up for her?

8 Likes

A bit of surprise, what you take away from my comment.

As I tried to express when alluding to male privilege I also have serious doubts over the sentencing.

You’re right, I didn’t see that in your comment.

So how do you think rehabilitation of the perpetrator should work, considering the fact his sentence was so light SPECIFICALLY to get him back in the home with his young sons (and perhaps daughter? or other daughters?) as soon as possible?

6 Likes

Why are you surprised? You haven’t clarified your point in such a way to disabuse anyone of that view.

You certainly can express your intentions and why you believe that any sentencing is “vindictive” versus “rehabilitative”, that would be preferable to expression of surprise.

2 Likes

Whether you want heavy or light sentencing can be a matter of opinion, but to give a slap of the wrist for repeatedly raping a 12 year old, while drug users regularly get put away for many years, is an utter disgrace.

And I can totally understand that maybe rapists don’t get put away for 10 years. But 2 months?! Even in countries that sentence might lighter than the US does, 2 months is very little for rape. For a harsh punishment country like the US, it’s completely incomprehensible, until you take into account that a lot of people clearly don’t see rape as a very serious crime.

11 Likes

I absolutely agree on all counts. If our justice system was focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment, I could see more lenient sentences, but these short term ones make no sense. They are neither.

2 Likes

Certainly not the women in her family.

2 Likes

Right, I understand the need to see nuance and empathy for humans in many of these situations.

Kneejerk chastisement on questionably lenient sentencing over the long term rape of one’s daughter is curious, though.

2 Likes

I have nothing better to offer other then this sentence reeks of male privilege.

I don’t know enough about the specific case to make a reasonable argument on any length of sentence other then it feels very short and circumstances in favour of a short sentences would have to be very, very compelling in order to convince me that a good balance between has been struck in this case between protecting the victim and rehabilitation of the perpetrator.

But.

I am just not particularly happy about second-guessing judges and their decisions in public and with limited information at hand. It would be worthwhile to find out more about what kind of sentencing this judge has doled out in the past. Given only one case of seemingly inappropriate sentencing I would prefer to think the judge had good reasons for it. But if I where living in Montana maybe I would make it a point to find out more about this judge and if a pattern emerges then any criticism would have a solid basis.

Why does it matter if there’s a pattern?

In this specific case, a rapist is found guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting his 12yo daughter, and the sentence is made laughably short because the judge thinks the priority is to get the man back to his family ASAP.

What minutia is there to uncover before we can say, without fear of having missed something, that the sentence is dangerous in its leniency?

8 Likes