Last week we asked our facebook friends to comment on a current
event in hopes to gain insight on their thoughts on current sentencing
guidelines. We found that a Middletown woman had been recently convicted of a
sex crime and the case paralleled that of a Georgia woman, the difference being
drastically different sentences. Because of the involvement of minors, little
information of what transpired is available. Special education teacher Cristina
Prestonof Georgia was convicted of having sex with a 14 year old student in her care and sentenced to 25 years and lifelong parole earlier this week. This
week Christine Powell a special education teacher employed by the Middletown
Connecticut Public School system here plead guilty to sex with a minor
student. Her sentence: 9 months, 10 years probation. Both must register
as sex offenders. There are a number of reasons why the sentences could be
different, however the similarities released to the public are strikingly
similar.
We asked: Readers what do you think? Thoughts? Which sentence is correct?
Please comment
below, we may use your thoughts in an article.
Thank you to our readers who
responded! Feel free to leave a
comment yourself.
Does location play a part in sentencing? Here is what they
had to say:
Charvel Greene-Davis "Extensive probation like that is
ridiculous. Jail time? Yes...but all that probation does is lead someone back
to jail. I think jail time, and classes and therapy for the people that go
through this is necessary. Either way the way they make probation makes it easy
to mess up as soon as you walkout your door you are in a new violation. People
do stupid shit all of the time...do it once; do the time and let people learn
from it....its when they repeat should the probation and jail term be increased.Idk I think the focus should be more on dangerous criminals and
people who are consistently doing the same thing. Also, what's up with the
different length in sentences? These people will already have a screwed up time
trying to get by for the rest of their lives."
Vinnie
Marotta "If you don't
already know at 40, that having sex with a 14 year old is wrong,
then all the
therapy in the world won't help. Shoot her."
Vinnie
Marotta "At least
sterilize her..."
Charvel Greene-Davis "True but I've known way too many people that have gone to
jail for this and can't lead a normal life when the age difference is
freshman/sophomore and have had worse sentences than this. That's more what I
was commenting on and relating it to the article...4 year age difference and both parties were willing but ends up with 10 years and 15 probation or a 26
age difference and multiple people knew and it was a teacher who and she gets
slapped with 9 months....SOMETHING needs to change and fast..so the people who paid their dues get left alone."
John Brush "My understanding is Christina
Preston received a sentence of life, without the possibility of parole before
serving 25 years. Obviously cultural mores in the two states influenced the
extremely disparate outcomes."
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Palin
Smith "I'm surprised
she didn't get an award, but I guess her offense
didn't
rise to infringement of the Bill of Rights"
Palin
Smith "In synch with
your Calabrese post, why not re-title the story to say, "Chris Powell
gets
9 months in the slammer for poor choice of friends"
Brian
Sandridge "Very
interesting. Christine and Cristina P. Homonymous first names and identical final initial. Clearly Cristina is guilty of misspelling her first name and
thus deserves the greater sentence. However to be certain it is necessary to
see a photo of Cristina. Christine is much less attractive thanmost of the
teachers who have "abused" hormonally driven boys so I would think
she deserves more time than the pretty blondes."
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Fred Carroll "It depends on some key details but
if there was no force involved and the
"child" wasn't 3 years old or
such then I don’t think I agree with 25 years.....I would assert that our
culture is profoundly pornographic and that Jon Benet Ramsey could be
considered a literal "poster child" for the sexual exploitation of
children as practiced in America, and elsewhere, also of course.....we have
no
monopoly on being sick freaks, I assume....."
Vinnie has got the right idea! Had the teacher in Ct been a man whole different story!
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