Reply #50: The judge is known for his creative sentencing

[jim3775]

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2005/09/creative_and_ef.html

Judge Michael A. Cicconetti usually lets the punishment fit the crime. Using a blend of humor and humiliation, the Painesville Municipal Court judge has sentenced defendants facing lowlevel crimes to fates such as sharing a sty with a pig and parading a donkey through town....

In his previous career as a defense attorney, Cicconetti quickly learned that jail doesn't leave much of an impression on some people, who soon become repeat offenders. "I have not had any of those people return, ever," he said....

Cicconetti first experimented with alternative sentencing with motorists who sped through school zones, making them spend a day working as a school crossing guard.... Some of the sentences Cicconetti has handed down through the past few years: a man ran with officers in a race for fleeing police; a couple apologized in a newspaper for a public sex act; a man and a woman marched with a donkey for vandalizing a statue of baby Jesus....

"Generally, the humiliation type of punishment may serve to teach the lesson well," said Lewis Katz, a criminal law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "You can't really argue with success if they're not depriving an individual of their liberty, and as long as it's related to the offense."

Also, PETA intervened in this case.