 When does it become cruel & unusual punishment?
Here in Lake County, Ohio, USA, we have a pretty famous judge in Mike Cicconetti. Unfortunately his daughter is not that attractive, which might be a good thing for me, judging by his punishments. However he employs tactics that he calls creative justice; short jail sentences, mixed with public humiliation.
In one case, there was a kid (who I went to school with) who stole porn. He got caught, Cicconetti forced him to sit out in front of the store blindfolded with a sign that said, "see no evil."
Another example, a man caught with a loaded gun was sent to a morgue to see dead bodies. Or, another example, Three men soliciting sex ordered to wear chicken suit holding sign that reads, "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville."
The one that finally made me begin to think that his punishment was over line, is that someone stole the pot of money from a salvation army post. They caught the guy, and his punishment was to spend 24 hours homeless in January in Painesville. Let me tell you what, it's fucking cold right now. We're talking single digits. I could understand the punishment of working at a soup kitchen for a month straight, or something like that. When you take away shelter from someone though, especially in this weather, that is going far above what I consider to be righteous punishment. |