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SAN FRANCISCO---Standing outside a post office for 100 hours wearing a sandwich board that read "I have stolen mail. This is my punishment" is not cruel and unusual punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
Shawn Gementera had pleaded guilty in 2003 to mail theft which had occurred in 2001 and as part of his supervised release, Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court of Northern District of California sentenced Gementera to wear the sandwich board.
Gementera had argued that the sentence violated the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act and that it was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. He said the punishment was designed to publicly shame and humiliate him.
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range was two to eight months incarceration; Judge Walker sentenced Gementera to the lower bound of the range, imposing two months incarceration and three years supervised release.
Gementera later filed a motion to correct the sentence by removing the sandwich
board condition. Judge Walker modified the sentence after inviting both parties to present "an alternative form or forms of public service that would better comport with the aims of the court." In lieu of the 100-hour signboard requirement, the district court imposed a four-part special condition in its stead.
Three new terms, proposed jointly by counsel, mandated that the defendant observe postal patrons visiting the "lost or missing mail" window, write letters of apology to any identifiable victims of his crime, and deliver several lectures at a local school. It also included a scaled-down version of the signboard requirement: The defendant shall perform one day of 8 total hours of community service during which time he shall either (i) wear a two-sided sandwich board-style sign or (ii) carry a large two-sided sign stating, "I stole mail; this is my punishment," in front of a San Francisco postal facility identified by the probation officer.
A U.S. Appeals Court had ruled against Gementera in August, saying that the judge could have sentenced him to a longer prison term instead of the signboard. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0310103p.pdf
11-30-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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