The Iron Ring

Although I intend to do more research to determine what kinds of chemicals I put on my face daily, I wanted to take the opportunity to post on a more news-y less science-y topic.

My former adviser was sentenced to prison yesterday.

Read this and this and this.

Read the comments posted on the Daily Pennsylvanian website today; they are more sympathetic than I would have expected.

I don't really understand how it is that he could be sentenced twice for the same crime. It seems wrong to me that he was sentenced, and he served his sentence only to be told that he would be sentenced again. How often does this happen? And is there some statute of time? It has been almost 5 years. His career literally ended. He served his house arrest. Does any of that 'count'???

It also is a shock to me how quickly discussion of a crime like this becomes about race and class. I've heard over and over that if he was a poor black man he would have been sent to prison right away. Perhaps. But perhaps that is a flaw of our legal system. Perhaps exacting harsh punishment on this man is not the way to rectify what is a much larger problem.

I'm no legal expert but he did not plead 'guilty' he plead 'no contest'. And as this never went to trial we don't really know what the 'evidence' was (sorry for all the quotes today). How can we just condemn?? More than one person I know has told me some variation on the phrase 'good, he deserved it' and I can't say I agree. Too many shades of gray.