http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/25/553455099/anthony-weiner-sentenced-to-21-months-in-prison
Anthony Weiner leaving federal court after his sentencing Monday 9/25/17 (NPR)
Just this Monday, Anthony Weiner, a former U.S. Representative has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for "sexting" with a 15-year old minor. In addition to this jail time, Anthony Weiner has been sentenced to 3 years of supervision following his release.
This isn't Weiner's first offense either. In June of 2011, while serving in Congress, Weiner accidentally tweeted a picture of his "boxer-clad erection." He initially claimed that it was a hacker who uploaded it but later admitted that he was sending it to a woman who was not his wife. Weiner eventually resigned from Congress due to this scandal and when many other sexually explicit texts with different woman started to emerge. Two years later in 2013 when Weiner ran for the mayor of New York, screenshots of his sexual conversations with women emerged again and an inappropriate image of himself with his son next to him on the bed caused an uproar.
And it doesn't end there. Weiner's sexting case played yet another significant role in politics: this time in the 2016 election for presidency. Anthony Weiner's wife(recently ex-wife) Abedin Weiner was Hillary Clinton's advisor during her run for presidency. When the FBI were investigating Anthony Weiner's laptop for evidence for his sentencing, they discovered some of his wife's work emails that had to do with Hillary's campaign. Shortly before the 2016 elections, former FBI director James Comey announced that these newly discovered emails needed to be investigated as part of Clinton's investigation for her use of a private email server. And this announcement from Comey of Clinton's investigation has been viewed by many as one of the key reasons Clinton had lost the presidential election.
The judge of this case, Denise Cote, has stated that due to Anthony's political career Weiner's sentence holds more importance, which some believe may have even affected his sentence time in jail.
What do you guys think? Should Weiner's case be viewed and weighted differently due to his political career? Is it fair that he is held to a different standard due to his occupation and the occupation of his wife?
Also, what do you guys think of Weiner's sentencing. Does it accurately address the severity of his crime?
7 comments:
I think that Anthony Weiner should be held to the same standard of law as any American because that is what true justice is. I think that because this is not Weiner's first offense that he should be given a higher sentence for what he did. 21 months for sexting a 15 year old seems fair however this is not the first time that Weiner has done this. I also think that his occupation and wife's occupation should be immaterial in his process of law.
I agree with Giorgio. Just because someone has some sort of political power, that does not mean that they should retrieve special treatment. So the whole career part of the controversy is really irrelevant. Such bias would only add to the inequality that is still present in America, especially in regards to many politicians getting away with offenses that would otherwise be punishable. I think his sentencing is reasonable, but I honestly don't really know what the usual sentencing for a crime like this is.
I would think that his political career would only make the sentence worse, and perhaps it should be harsher to send a message about making people in power accountable. I know that in trials of free speech violations (slander and libel) from our current unit, public officials and entities have a much harder time winning those cases, and it should be that way because to be public is to have more of a responsibility to do the right thing.
Yeah, sorry if I didn't make it clear in my blog. Michael is right, his political career only makes his sentence worse not that he is receiving special treatment. I agree with Michael actually that public officials have a harder time with these cases and Anthony Weiner is a prime example of this.
I don't think his political career played a major role in his sentence. Sexting a minor is not acceptable behavior, and deserves significant punishment. Additionally, as Giorgio said, knowing that this isn't his first offense also hopefully played a role in the decision. I agree that his political career makes the decision hold more weight, but 21 months seems to be reasonable for anyone in his situation, not just someone with a high status.
I believe that his political career should serve a role in coming up with an accurate sentence. For someone in such high power and status to be engaging in extremely inappropriate behavior should not allow him to be evaluated similarly to a regular citizen. I think that it would serve as a warning to people of high status who may later engage in such behavior. Apart from that, I agree with Aech and think that 21 months is pretty reasonable and so are the 3 years of supervision.
I don't think that Weiner's political career played a part in his sentencing, however I do think the judge was right in saying that his political career is part of the significance of this case. It is so often that politicians are aloud to lie and cheat without consequence so it is good to see a politician being brought to justice. Now I realize that pretty much everyone hates Weiner and the crime he committed is not in anyway controversial, so it is not much of a surprise he was convicted but it is still a good thing to see. The one thing that actually surprised me is that asking for child pornography only gets you 21 months in prison. I assumed it would be at least 5 years.
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