AP: (Supreme) Court Refuses to Hear Child Porn Case

[Eugene]

Court Refuses to Hear Child Porn Case
By Associated Press

February 26, 2007, 11:18 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider the case of a
former Phoenix, Ariz., high school teacher sentenced to 200 years in prison for
possessing child pornography.

Morton Berger argued that his sentence was grossly disproportionate to his crime,
amounting to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

A judge in 2004 sentenced the former Cortez High School teacher to consecutive
10-year prison terms on each of 20 convictions for sexual exploitation of a minor.
Each of the 20 counts was for possessing computer and printed images of child
pornography, and 10 years was the minimum sentence for each count.

-snip-

The case is Morton Berger v. state of Arizona, 06-349.

Full article: http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-child-porn,0,6318430.story

[robinlynne]

1. jesus! 200 years for having pornography. so bush's thousands of murders should net

him a few thousand years in jail then...

[mth44sc]

2. well now...

"high school teacher sentenced to 200 years in prison for
possessing child pornography."

teacher - child porn...

I'd say the sentence sounds about right.

[OneBlueSky]

5. oh, please . . . serial killers don't get that kind of sentence . . . n/t

.

[Porcupine]

3. Meanwhile US troops kill thousands of kids in Iraq.

Homeland security has kids incarcerated in concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of american kids don't have health insurance.

We pull out all the stops to destroy images of kids being exploited but we cant' stop killing actual children.

What's wrong with this picture?

[EST]

4. This curious view of jurisprudence certainly says a lot

about the republican/libertarian illogic, Arizona's and the eigth circuit's antiquated take on what works best in the real world and a legislature's right wing truculence which follows the usual rabid wingy idea of justice-mercy and thoughtfulness for me and retributionary justice for everyone else. These sentences should have been scheduled to run concurrently.

To follow up on the eigth circuits opinions from last may and an interesting discussion of the case at that time, here is a good link:
http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2006/05/what_ever_happe.html

The insanity continues to build in Amerika.