Posted on 08/04/2012 9:02:42 PM PDT by SC Swamp Fox
Judge Michael Nettles’ decision to tack a biblical assignment onto the sentence of a drunken driver in York County has people from South Carolina to Europe and beyond talking.
Cassandra Belle Tolley, 28, pleaded guilty in June to a drunken driving crash in Rock Hill that left two people seriously injured – one had to have rods and screws surgically implanted to support his spinal column, the other has undergone six surgeries and could still lose his left foot. Nettles, a Lake City native and resident judge in the Florence-based 12th Circuit, accepted the plea and sentenced Tolley to eight years in prison followed by five years probation and substance abuse counseling. But Nettles added an unusual sentence stipulation: He ordered that Tolley read the Book of Job and complete a summary of it.
The unusual sentence set tongues to wagging – and Nettles’ phone to ringing. Religious, judicial and government experts across the nation and around had pondered the decision for what it says about the always-thorny separation of church and state. Most experts say it almost certainly violates that prohibition -- and whether or not it might have been an abuse of judicial power. Is forcing someone to read the Book of Job and write a report on it a form of “cruel and unusual punishment,” which is prohibited by the Constitution?
“I don’t know that it would be considered cruel and unusual,” said Kenneth Gaines, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, who specializes in the area of punishment. “But it’s certainly unusual, and if she hadn’t consented to it, no, I don’t think it would be enforceable. It’s not something that’s done on a regular basis, but judges do have some discretion, and in this case, if the defendant had not agreed, it probably could have been considered an abuse of that discretion. But she agreed to it, so it’s not really an issue.”
Nettles has repeatedly declined comment on the case and the sentence, as is his general rule, but said in a phone conversation that he’s aware it has stirred up quite a debate. He said he has received hundreds of phone calls, emails and letters from both supporters and protesters, as have others involved in the case.
The case itself is unusual and is certainly worthy of some debate. The defendant’s background includes abuse as a child and the beginnings of religious redemption, even before Nettles’ assignment.
Tolley’s attorney, Amy Sikora, a York County public defender, said it was Tolley that brought religion to the table during her plea hearing. She professed her Christianity to the judge, and her pastor spoke on her behalf.
“There was a large discussion on record about how she has really turned to religion to cope and deal with a lot of things that have happened to her in her life,” Sikora said.
Tolley told her pastor and Sikora that a relative repeatedly abused her physically as a child. On Thanksgiving Day, when Tolley was 11, Sikora said a relative doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Burn scars are still visible on her face.
Tolley moved to Rock Hill from Ohio and occasionally began attending New Vision Free Will Baptist Church, where she met the Rev. Daggett Duncan.
“She’s a very, very, very humble, distraught person,” Duncan said in an interview with the Rock Hill Herald. “Looking in her eyes, you could see the pain. You just couldn’t help but reach out.”
Duncan said Tolley has turned to alcohol through the years in an effort to cope with her problems. That dependency took its toll Nov. 12, 2011, when, while driving drunk on the wrong side of the road, Tolley crashed into a car, severely injuring its two passengers.
According to the York County solicitor’s office, her blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was more than four times the legal limit.
Duncan said Tolley has been distraught over her actions and the effect they had on others since the crash and is extremely remorseful. So much so, Duncan said that when Tolley saw one of her victims in court, she turned to him and said, “I don’t deserve to live. I have ruined these people’s lives.”
With Duncan’s help, Sikora said Tolley has turned to Christ. Duncan spoke on Tolley’s behalf in court. He said Nettles’ choice of Bible book is interesting and appropriate.
Job is a well-known book, a work considered a literary masterpiece by some outside of its religious context. It’s spawned countless commentaries, perhaps the most famous being Rabbi Harold Kushner’s “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.”
In Job, a “righteous man” – Job – is portrayed as the subject of a bet between God and Satan. Satan wagers that he can make Job lose his religion, as it were, by afflicting him with calamitous bad fortune. Most of the book is Job’s “friends” trying to explain what has happened. The climax of the book is God’s “answer” to Job’s questions. The book does not really explain why suffering happens, or what God thinks about it, but it does pose those critical questions.
“I think (Nettles’) faith and his compassion led him to use the Book of Job,” Duncan said. “Job made it through, and he wants her to know she can, too.”
Duncan and his wife, Judy, will take custody of two of Tolley’s three children – a 6-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy – while she’s in prison. Her third child, an infant, will live with the father.
Tolley pleaded to felony driving under the influence causing great bodily injury. The crime carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail, but Sikora said Tolley pleaded under a 10-year cap.
Sikora said despite others’ opinions on the unique sentence, Tolley embraces it.
“She pleaded on a Thursday,” said Sikora. “The next morning, I went down to the jail to see her and she’d already started working on it [reading Job and the required writing assignment],” Sikora said. “That was a provision of her probation, so she was already working on it years before she’d ever be required to. She has no problem with it and was in fact thankful for it.”
“I recommend reading the entire article.”
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I recommend reading the entire Bible.
the most famous book inspired by Job isn’t that crappy feel good book by the Rabbi. It’s “Answer to Job” by Carl Jung.
That time in my life, and the book of Job changed my life forever.
Prayers lifted for her victims. And for her.
/johnny
The book doesn’t have that horribly complex a story in it. A fellow, Job, who lived well before Abraham, and who behaved very conscientiously towards God though by no means being perfect (no sinner is) was commended by God before the angels. The devil was among them and mocked Job to God, claiming that Job’s faith would easily break down if he met calamity. God gave the devil permission to cause such calamity and then the main theme of the book begins. Job’s friends were even more ignorant than Job was about what was happening (none of them understood spiritual warfare), and an almost comic sequence follows for many chapters where they try to blame Job for the problems and Job keeps protesting that he’s innocent. Finally the wisest of the friends emphasizes the sovereignty of God and then God elaborates on that point out of the whirlwind. Job calms down and realizes the point of the ordeal wasn’t his guilt or innocence and confesses to God that he was wrong to have assumed that it was. God raises Job up, has him pray for the erring friends who tried to blame him, and blesses him a second time. The End.
If this is all this lady has to write it really isn’t very much. It will take maybe an hour....
I’m all for getting tough on drunk drivers - but forcing him to read a religious text is not what this country is about.
But, yea... you pretty much summed it up overall.
You learn a lot by re-reading a book like Job every day for 4 months.
I could probably write a book about it, myself. ;)
/johnny
Did you even read the excerpt?
Oh wonderful, implementing a state religion edict in direct conflict with our constitution! /S
I wonder how many of those here so smugly pleased would still be so happy if the text mandated were Mormon, Buddhist, or even Islamic?
Not many I am sure!
Watch that slippery slope, a person could get hurt.
She has 8 years in prison to work on it.
I’m more bemused about it than concerned, as I myself summed the book up in a few minutes of typing. I don’t know why the judge granted it, as it seems de minimis. But so what if a religion appropriate task like this was assigned. For a Mormon, some Mormon text. For a Muslim, a chapter of the Quran. For an atheist, some humanist screed. This is all de minimis and nobody who is a party to the case seems to be complaining.
I recommend reading the entire article.
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I recommend reading the entire Bible.
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I recommend reading the entire works of Shakespeare.
“To brag unto them, “Thus I did, and thus!”
- Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene 2.
Why of course, which is why the fuss over something that a knowledgeable Christian can turn out in a few minutes seems to be over my head. In that time one could turn out a very minute biblical commentary that expands for pages on almost every verse.
“There was a large discussion on record about how she has really turned to religion to cope and deal with a lot of things that have happened to her in her life,” Sikora said.
With Duncan’s help, Sikora said Tolley has turned to Christ. Duncan spoke on Tolley’s behalf in court. He said Nettles’ choice of Bible book is interesting and appropriate.
“I think (Nettles’) faith and his compassion led him to use the Book of Job,” Duncan said. “Job made it through, and he wants her to know she can, too.”
Sikora said despite others’ opinions on the unique sentence, Tolley embraces it.
“There was a large discussion on record about how she has really turned to religion to cope and deal with a lot of things that have happened to her in her life,” Sikora said.
Um, not too well it seems, else she would not have been in that court!
Not expecting too much from someone who continually substitutes one addiction for another, allowing them to shift all personal responsibility to another party, or substance.
Wonder how long before she kills someone during a “Lapse”?
I only read the beginning of the excerpt. But now looking further on, I see that it was actually the defendant’s idea. My bad. Sorry.
Is there any other way?
Actually you’ve missed the main points of the Book of Job.
It’s about whether suffering is punishment for sin or whether sometime the totally innocent suffer.
Job is not a sinner. He’s innocent. (This is a didactic story, character-traits are exaggerated to make a point.) His friends’ theology is that suffering only happens as punishment for sin. (And conversely, prosperity is reward for righteousness. Prosperity-Gospel 101.)
Job knows he has not sinned. He begs God to explain why he, being innocent, has to suffer so much. His friends tell him to admit he’s sinned so as not to risk damnation.
But that would be a lie. Job doesn’t lie. He is righteous. Yet he’s suffering. Both are clear facts, to Job. (His friends only know the fact of his suffering. They cannot KNOW that he’s sinned. They ASSUME that he’s sinned, based on their theology of suffering.)
Job’s friends want him to accuse God of injustice, of punishing those who don’t deserve it. Job steadfastly refuses to say that God was wrong to punish him though he’s innocent. Job is a man of utter faith: he basically says, I don’t see why I should be suffering. I did not do anything to deserve it. But I will not curse God for this. I believe God is just,
no
matter
what.
Job is about faith when it seems impossible. About believing that God is righteous, no matter how puzzling God’s behavior seems to be.
The point of the book is to reject the false theology that suffering is always punishment for sin. It sets the stage for Christ, the Suffering One who is TOTALLY innocent.
For many religions, including classic Judaism, the assumption that suffering is punishment for sin is deeply engrained. The Book of Job points toward the immense breakthrough in Christianity: that the Innocent Sufferer will somehow, in the end, set right the suffering of all innnocents. God takes care of innocent suffering by Himself suffering Innocently.
Job is crucial today because a lot of people look at the Holocaust and say, one cannot believe in God (the God of Christianity or Judaism) any more—how could a Good God permit that kind of innocent suffering? Modern people curse God, blame God for letting it happen. Job refused to do that.
.
The message out of the whirlwind is to tell Job
Job is thus, together with Isaiah 53, one of the most important Christological books in the OT.
Strike next-to-last line. Was going to develop something further.
A summary of the Koran?
My pleasure, your honor!
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