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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAlabama Man Won't Serve Prison Time for Raping 14-Year-Old
(HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIFE.)
An Alabama man convicted of raping a teenage girl will serve no prison time. On Wednesday, a judge in Athens, Alabama, ruled that the rapist will be punished by serving two years in a program aimed at nonviolent criminals and three years of probation.
In September, a jury in Limestone County, in north central Alabama, found Austin Smith Clem, 25, guilty of raping Courtney Andrews, a teenage acquaintance and his then-neighbor, three timestwice when she was 14, and again when was she was 18.
Clem's defense attorney did not call any witnesses at trial, according to AL.com. After less than two hours of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts against Clem on one count of first-degree rape and two counts of second-degree rape.
...
Limestone County Circuit Judge James Woodroof sentenced Clem to 10 years in prison for each of the second-degree rape charges and 20 years for first-degree rape. But Woodroof structured the sentence in such a way that Clem will only be hit with community corrections and probation. Clem will have to register as a sex offender and pay fines and restitutiona total of $2,381, according to the sentencing document provided to Mother Jonesbut he will not serve jail time unless he violates the terms of his sentencing.
full: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/alabama-man-no-prison-time-raping-teenager
The judge, for shame:
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)got that from another poster.
not to mention stuebenville, and ohio where the cops were just refusing to even prosecute.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)That's news to me!!
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)PerceptionManagement
(464 posts)Would an African American have been treated differently? It's irresponsible not to speculate. That's just Cokie's Law.
niyad
(113,556 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)I can't believe the stuff rapists are getting away with these days!
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Shameful, shameful shit. It's as if certain sections of this country have been thrown into a fuckin' time warp.....
At the very least, this guy should have received at least 10-15 years in prison, and then the program, and then a lifetime of probation.
CherokeeDem
(3,709 posts)but.... but.... rape is a non-violent crime???
At least he has to register as a sex offender... but he should be doing some serious jail time.
At this point, nothing surprises me...
flvegan
(64,415 posts)Woodroof. James Woodroof. Austin Clem. Got it.
Duly noted.
Solly Mack
(90,787 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)then would you not see it as non violent?
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)...about a Guy/animal ? that raped this young girl and is not going to jail....waiting...How come I never dream about being
in a Starship and landing on a progressive planet or something nice...Fuck No....I have to dream about this digesting bullshit, as if
somebody would NOT go to jail for such an unspeakable act...wake up....wake up..........
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)When you rape, you go to prison. End of message.
This is such bullshit!!
Find that S.O.B. on the street & deal with him if the courts ain't gonna do their job.
Starting to find a common thread between this verdict & the "rape is just another form of contraception" mentality spouted by certain politicians.
Rape laws are supposed to protect women & girls from monsters like these.
This ain't a victimless crime!
And he WILL do it again!
John Lucas
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Not acceptable.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)The more you see BS verdicts like this, the more you're gonna see people take up vigilante justice.
This is not a case of ambiguous evidence where the accused may not have done the crime he's accused of.
This sucker committed FIRST-DEGREE & SECOND-DEGREE rape on a teenaged girl! REPEATEDLY!
And all he has to pay is a measly $2,381 in restitution?????
No prison time whatsoever?????
If that was MY daughter he raped like that & he got off scot free, the cat wouldn't be breathing the week afterwards.
He'll rape somebody else, it's guaranteed.
We need a revamp on the U.S. "Justice System". An entire overhaul.
This crap we got right now doesn't work.
The more case outcomes like these around, the more Batmans & Punishers that will arise.
John Lucas
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)You don't take this shit lying down!
Violent vigilantes can all frankly go fuck themselves. I get it if some of them are the target's victim or family/friends of a victim, but organizing lynch mobs is anarchy.
Batman and Punisher are fucking fiction for a reason. The reason they'll rise up is less to do with the broken justice system than with vigilante fantasists like you giving them support.
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)I'm very aware of the downsides of vigilantism.
But court cases like this are inexcusable.
And I don't give a damn about upholding the U.S. Justice System if it is not in the business of justice.
Maybe we need a new system. Scrap this current one because it's not serving society like it should.
I told you my honest feelings.
I wouldn't have took it to the streets before the one who raped my hypothetical daughter was charged.
I would have let the man go through the justice system first & get his trial.
But when the rapist is shown to have done it & STILL gets virtually no punishment, what do you expect a person to do?
He's found guilty AND MORE IMPORTANTLY there's evidence that he actually committed the crime.
But they give him no prison time & all he has to do is pay $2,381 for REPEATEDLY victimizing a young girl???
At that point my regard for the justice system will be discarded & I'd take things into my own hands. Real talk.
Rapists simply shouldn't be walking the streets without having done prison time first.
Vigilantes are Pandora's Box. I'm well aware of this.
If you don't wanna see that inevitability, the courts are gonna have to do a better job punishing criminals like these.
If the U.S. Government sent drones to attack homegrown political dissidents, a lot of people would lose faith in the goodwill of that government & would stop honoring the bylaws & rules put down by that government.
Nobody would believe in "voting them out" & more people would believe in "snuffing them out".
A police force shoots up the citizenry in a massive abuse of power.
The people of that town would do less "filing a complaint with the superiors" & start doing more "shooting back at the police".
There's something BEYOND the written laws of a land.
And when the laws of that land don't do what they're prescribed to do, the people go into what's beyond those laws.
It damages the power of the courts every time travesties like this verdict result happen.
If enough people don't believe in the goodwill of the law system, they become lawless.
Very fragile balance.
John Lucas
Response to NuclearDem (Reply #20)
Name removed Message auto-removed
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)crime.
this is the way the lazy argue.
white_wolf
(6,238 posts)Vigilantism never leads anywhere good. Where do you draw the line? Once you condone vigilantism you make everyone judge, jury and executioner. There are some libertarians who think property rights are worth killing over so going by your system they would be justified for hunting down a thief and killing them. That's the danger of vigilantism you make everyone a law unto themselves and then there is no law. Only chaos. Batman and Punisher are fictional characters for god's sake. (Plus as comics fan Batman is a poor example since it's extremely debatable as how effective he is.)
johnlucas
(1,250 posts)There's an arrogance with people who work within the "Justice System".
They don't seem to understand that their decisions affect how citizens view their government.
If things get too Banana Republic for the citizens, after awhile the citizens reject that "Justice System" & concoct a Justice System of their own.
And yes this will lead into more abuses because of the judge, jury, & executioner aspect.
That's EXACTLY why judges should NEVER be so trivial with verdicts & sentences like this.
The truth of the matter is that laws are just words on paper.
They mean nothing if there's no action behind them.
When someone rapes a child, that rapist should not get off virtually unscathed.
This is NOT a victimless crime.
Prisons are needed to keep this guy from raping some other girl.
What's the point of a prison if not to quarantine violators like this away from other people.
Rape laws can't prevent rapes from happening but they CAN prevent FUTURE rapes from happening.
The message sent by this judge says "Rape my little girls. It's all good."
Natural law takes over when written law becomes inadequate.
So those upholding written law had better take extreme caution when they deliver their verdicts & sentences.
Remember. This country was founded by people who saw laws that didn't benefit their society.
They told King George to stuff his laws & fought a Revolution.
Just because it's law doesn't mean it's sacrosanct.
The purpose of law is to uphold what is sacrosanct or it means nothing.
John Lucas
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Or would it be OK for a female teacher to rape your teenage son?
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)Everything is not about poor beleaguered and downtrodden men. Fact: men commit 99 percent of rapes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_gender
To pretend there is an equivalency is a lie. You need to face reality and stop whining about evil women.
Unlike others here, you don't express concern about vigilante justice but are outraged that the poster doesn't talk about targeting women.
BTW, I have repeatedly argued that female pedophiles should be treated every bit as harshly as
male offenders, which actually is a very low bar. All rapists and molesters should do serious jail time, but the facts are women commit a very small percentage of those crimes. You, on the other hand, argued that the CA prisons were too crowded to incarcerate a man convicted of raping dozens of women and who offended the very day of his last release. After all, he targeted women, and it's not like our lives count.
This ax you have to grind against women is going to poison you. Interjecting your men's rights crap into every thread is bizarre.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)We (men) get angry and want to commit violence when someone hurts our daughter. Someone sexually abuses our son and we give the boy a beer.
If you want to talk about female offenders, we can. But that wasn't what I was getting at here.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)If Zimmerman of all people didn't get it, why would this guy??
quakerboy
(13,921 posts)trying to figure it out, trying to make sense of it. It usually doesn't work.
In this case, I cant help but think that maybe if this girl had gotten to have lunch at applebees with the moms, and the gun toting loonies were busy stalking and staring down the rapist, The world would be a slightly better place.
intaglio
(8,170 posts)then it sounds like this man needs a performance of the "Rough Music"