Posted on 07/06/2011 2:09:59 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - When 18-year-old Tyell Morton put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall on the last day of school, he didn't expect school officials to call a bomb squad or that he'd be facing up to eight years in prison and a possible felony record.
The senior prank gone awry has raised questions of race, prosecutorial zeal and the post-Columbine mindset in a small Indiana town and around the country, The Indianapolis Star reported in its Tuesday editions.
Legal experts question the appropriateness of the charges against Morton, and law professor Jonathan Turley at George Washington University posed a wider question about Morton's case on his legal blog.
"The question is what type of society we are creating when our children have to fear that a prank (could) lead them to jail for almost a decade. What type of citizens are we creating who fear the arbitrary use of criminal charges by their government?"
(Excerpt) Read more at wsmv.com ...
He is 18 years old.
He prolly wasn't even born when the rag heads bombed the Trade Center.
He was only 8 when the towers and Pentagon were attacked.
All this “...in a post 9/11 world” rationale is just an excuse to act idiotically under the guise of security.
put a blow-up sex doll in a bathroom stall
Was the doll male or female and in which restroom stall was it placed?
Jail time is horrid, but the real problem is the felony charges. Once you are a felon, it ruins your life.
You can’t adopt. You can’t vote. It comes up as a red flag on your applications.
“I became a felon for putting a doll in a restroom”. That is not the way this country was imagined by the founders.
It was, however, imagined that way by George Orwell.
Not to worry. He’s a light skinned black so, according to the recent Villanova study, he’ll get a lighter sentence.
The exact type the Socialists/Communists want. A collection of serfs rather than citizens who can be told what to do and when to do it without the politicians fear of backlash.
If you keep people on their heels, worrying whether or not they are going to be prosecuted and jailed, then they cannot step forward and take control over their lives and their country as free people.
Me too.
The old bag of burning dog poop on the front porch trick.....
To keep him from ever owning a firearm and ensuring he can keep his freedom and liberties. Also to make sure he can be jailed for any minor infraction and never hold a decent job so to keep him afraid and compliant for the rest of his life.
So true. Sometimes, if you didn’t have a lawyer, you can go back and do a “Motion for Appropriate Relief” and change your plea and work out something where you would not have a conviction. It is sad that one mistake (and think of all those who just never got caught) can ruin your life, but it sure can.
So true. Sometimes, if you didn’t have a lawyer, you can go back and do a “Motion for Appropriate Relief” and change your plea and work out something where you would not have a conviction. It is sad that one mistake (and think of all those who just never got caught) can ruin your life, but it sure can.
Yeah they just want him to have a felony conviction on his record so the state can limit his freedom for his entire life.
I am not exactly sure how they can charge him with anything. It was legit for him to be at his school. He took something in. Out of caution they called the cops because they could not identify him. Everytime the cops are called does not require someone be charged PARTICUALRY IF NO CRIME WAS COMMITTED.
I think it would be wise to be careful about the Anthony case. Whether through prosecutorial incompentence or a true lack of evidence the jury did the right thing. The murder case against Anthony was not proved. All the prosecution proved was that the woman has a serious problem telling the truth. That does not mean she killed her child.
In the absense of any other info, I’m thinking the child’s drowning was an accident that Anthony may have tried to cover up. Sadly small children manage to put themselves in harm’s way all the time for many reasons that have nothing to do with parental negligence.
I can still remember the time I got hold of one my monther’s bobby pins and stuck it in an electrical outlet. I must have been three or four years old. I got a hell of a shock. But if it had killed me would my mom, a widow, have been criminally negligent? I don’t think so.
Now, if you want to talk about the Simpson case you would be right on the money.
Right, Since no convictions, you don't have a felony record. My friend had a conviction where the plea bargain was no jail time, just probation. It still killed him on the job market.
So the scenario he presents to the guy is "You can plea bargain to a lesser charge, or you can put me to the trouble of going to trial. If you go to trial, you might get off, or you might get sentenced to 8 years. Do you feel lucky, punk?"
“Me too”
We must have been better at it since we were never caught. I am still giggling about the time one man was wearing bedroom slippers and did his stomping routine. The expletives were marvelous!! LOL!
True. It isn’t about justice.
We used to flush cherry bombs and M80’s down the tiolet’s in high school. Imagine if someone did that in todays world?
Without a surveillance video we would have merely had a prank.
But with a surveillance video we have felony crime. So, we now have more information than we used to have and yet make an incredibly stupid spectacle out of it.
The school corporation in this case had just enough information to be dangerous. Less is more or is it more is less. It would be interesting to see what led them to put in surveillance cameras that are an incomplete solution .... or did they use the system, as it currently is, for a use it was not intended for - i.e. was this supposed to be used for a retrospective analysis. Or do they monitor the “campus” and when they see something they don’t intervene while whatever they see is in process. Either way, the kid isn’t the one with a dozen eggs on his face.
Half the stuff we did growing up would land you in GITMO today...
“”I’m pretty comfortable with the charges that we’ve filed,” he said.”
Not for long, I’ll predict.
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