Since the cockcrow of human civilization , ruler have had to devise punishments for unaccepted demeanour . Sincere attempt were occasionally made to assure that the punishment fit the crime , like the conception of an Eye for an Eye . By contrast , the word “ Draconian , ” impute to the ruler Draco of ancient Athens around 621 BC , is synonymous with savage , ruthless , cruel and authoritarian punishment . According to Draco , all crimes , no matter how minor , were penal by death . While we have come a foresighted way since ancient Athens , we think you ’ll be surprised by our lean of 12 lurid Punishments for Minor Crimes .
12. Life without Parole for Stealing a $159 Jacket
Timothy Jackson was caught shoplifting a $ 159 jacket from a New Orleans Mais Blanche department store in January of 1996 . At the time of the offense Jackson was a 36 - year - sometime restaurant Captain Cook with a 6th - mark education and a drug dependance job . After entrust the fund with the stolen merchandise , Jackson noticed a protection safety in hot chase and decided to put the crownwork down before assay to flee the scene .
Since this was not Jackson ’s first offense , the Louisiana Court made utilisation of his criminal past , which included a juvenile article of faith for bare robbery and two other simple burglary convictions , and sentenced him as a forth - strike offender . Judge Bernette Johnson write , “ This sentence is constitutionally undue in that it is grossly out of proportion to the seriousness of the offense . ” alas this evaluator was unable to depart from the mandatory life judgment of conviction without parole mandated by the wonted offender police force .
11. Life without Parole for Stealing from Your Own Home
At the age of 22 , Lance Saltzman was doom to life without watchword for slip his stepfather Toni Minnick ’s hit man . During an arguing in March of 2006 , Minnick aimed and fire his gun at Saltzman ’s mother . Since the bullet train failed to arrive at anyone Minnick was allowed to keep his piece and no accusation were lodge . Soon afterwards Minnick pull his gun on Saltzman ’s female parent again and threatened to pour down her .
fear for his mother ’s life , Saltzman stole the gun from his stepfather ’s room and sold it to a friend . This friend then used the throttle in a burglary , was apprehended by the police and then inform the self-confidence where he had purchased the weapon . Saltzman , who had serve metre for a burglary when he was 16 , was sentenced under Florida ’s Prison Releasee Reoffender Law and receive the mandatory sentence of life sentence without parole for the burglary of his own nursing home .
http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2013/04/behind-bars-inside-baltimores-jail-through-the-years/#1 Via The Baltimore Sun
10. Life in Prison without Parole for Siphoning Gasoline
This is the account of two eighteen - wheelers in a Pearl , Mississippi parking lot . One of motortruck belong to Ricky Sherman , who had been vacationing out of town , and the other belonged to a small-scale time thief named Philip Young who was foolishly siphoning some free fuel for his drive . As Sherman arrived home he noticed that something was haywire and confronted Young . Young jumped into his eighteen - wheeler and drove around for 40 minutes before being grasp .
Young had antecedently been convicted for an unarmed carjacking in which no one was hurt . The district court decided that this conviction still constitute a violent crime and that siphoning fuel from a hand truck is the equivalent weight of automobile thievery . Young was found shamed of the burglary of Sherman ’s hand truck and was sentence to sprightliness without parole under Mississippi ’s accustomed offender police force . Young will spend the residual of his life history behind taproom for steal gasoline .
https://www.rbauction.qc.ca/blog/big-ticket-truck-and-transport-items-%E2%80%93-august-2014 Via rbauction.qc.ca
9. Life in Prison for Stealing a Couple of Basketball Jerseys
Ronald Lee Washington was a cook , a general labourer and a crack junkie . Over the course of 21 years , Washington stole to fee his drug habit and had been convicted of forgery , theft and burglary as a event . In August of 2004 , Washington attempt to steal two Michael Jordan Jersey from a sportswear fund in Shreveport , Louisiana . One of the Jersey had been returned before leaving the store while the other was found in his possession after being apprehended by center security .
Washington importune that the Jersey were on sales agreement for $ 45 each and that the coalesce value was less than the $ 100 minimum needed to classify his larceny as a felony . The prosecution fence that the combined time value was actually $ 120 and provoke the theft strong belief from a infraction to a felony . As a event , Washington was convict using the habitual wrongdoer law and doom to life-time in prison house .
https://coloringpages-hd99.rhcloud.com/mike/mike-with-in-nike-logo.html Via coloringpages-hd99.rhcloud.com
8. Life in Prison for Stealing Tools
In 2005 , at the age of 17 , Patrick Matthews and friend burglarized a loan office and a fruit stand while gamy on methamphetamine . Matthews plead shamed to three counts of unsubdivided burglary and received a five - year suspended sentence . In 2007 , he was charged again with a fourth burglary charge , which was inadvertently omitted from the original supplication agreement , and received an additional two years of probation . As a result , his first criminal offence label him a four - meter offender .
In 2009 , Matthews was impeach of slip prick , a welding automobile and a generator with an accomplice . At the sentence of the stoppage he was riding in the motortruck of the friend who had pawned the tools . Matthew take that he helped his friend sell the tool but was totally ignorant of the fact that they were steal . He was sentenced to life without parole for the burglary charge as a fifth - time habitual offender .
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507331/Family-man-given-life-parole-non-violent-crime-stealing-power-tool.html Via The Daily Mail
7. Life in Prison for Uttering a Forged Check Worth $88.30
A Kentucky man named Paul Lewis Hayes was indicted for “ uttering a forged official document ” in the amount of $ 88.30 . It ’s a crime to create forged confirmation and if you ’re caught doing this you will be open to legal prosecution . This offence typically express a two to ten class prison sentence .
The public prosecutor offered a five - year judgment of conviction if Hayes plead guilty and threaten to charge him under the Kentucky Habitual Criminal Act if he did n’t “ save the royal court the worriment and essential of a trial . ” Lewis , who had two other felony strong belief , determine that he would n’t be bullied into plead guilty and received life story in prison as a result . The test went to the Supreme Court , which predominate that Hayes ’ Constitutional rightfulness were not violate when he was threatened with a penalisation beyond the crime in question . The Supreme Court give out to seize an chance to make the justice system fair .
http://infodomini.com/2025-03-20/strategy/check-how-to-spot-a-forged-one/ Via InfoDomini.com
6. Life without Parole for Uttering Drunken Threats
In October of 2000 , Sylvester Mead got drunk at a party , bite some wolf fish and lost his humour . His 15 - year old stepdaughter call the constabulary . The police force arrived at the scene around 2:00 a.m. , handcuffed and arrest Mead and placed him into a patrol car . Mead , who had been shamed of two previous crimes , should have known to keep his drunken mouth shut .
According to the grounds presented at trial , Mead apparently tell the Shreveport police officer that , “ I should have shot you this time … I’ll do everything I can to get your goddam badge , ” and , “ in about two hours , you make the trip-up back to my house . ” Public deterrence under Louisiana law is unremarkably punished by a fine upwards to $ 1000 or imprisonment up to five geezerhood . The court expressed that Mead was never a threat but that the life in prison sentence as a habitual offender was regrettably mandatory .
http://hubcityblues.com/2024-11-27/a-prison-cell-awaits-execution/ Via HubCityBlues.com
5. Scientists Sentenced to Six years in Prison for Failing to Predict an Earthquake
In 2009 , an quake appraise 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the townsfolk of L’Aquila , Italy , kill more than 300 people . Six days before the monumental quake , Enzo Boschi , one of six Italian scientist investigate a late serial of small tremors , concluded that a large earthquake was possible but unlikely . Government official Bernardo De Bernardinis then told the multitude of L’Aquila that there was no peril or take to void .
Italian officials , who are sometimes conceive outstandingly stubborn , were looking for someone to blame for the cataclysm and decide that the scientists were creditworthy . In 2012 , these six scientists were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison house for fail to predict the earthquake . According to Seth Stein , a prof of Earth sciences at Northwestern University in Illinois , “ Our power to predict quake fortune is , frankly , lousy . ” In November 2014 , an appeals court overturned the scientists ’ convictions .
http://www.sarconiweb.it/gazzettavaldagri/terremoti-i-pozzi-petroliferi-non-li-scatenano-ne-disturbano-le-balene/ Via sarconiweb.it
4. 25-Years to Life for Approximately $15 Worth of Methamphetamine
Do n’t do drugs . in earnest , they are n’t good for you , it ’s illegal and depending on your history this illicit form of heady diversion can set down you with some hard prison house time . Just ask Californian inmate Shane Taylor , convicted under the Three Strikes Law that was passed with overpowering elector support in 1994 .
Taylor ’s first two strikes do in 1988 when he broke into two unoccupied homes . He stole a checkbook from one plate and left fingerprints in the other without stealing a thing . He was convicted of using the steal chequebook to bribe a pizza pie . Eight years later police light upon 0.14 Hans C. J. Gram of meth in his railway car while falsely being investigated for nonaged drinking . Judge Howard Broadman had no option but to impose a 25 - year sentence for Taylor ’s third strike . A decade later the judge wrote a declaration suffer Taylor ’s release saying , “ Shane Taylor was a misapprehension . ” Taylor remain in prison .
3. 15-Year Prison Sentence for Attempted Suicide
The story of Todd Hannigan had been a disturbing and trying tale long before being sentenced to 15 years behind bars for the possession of Vicodin . Hannigan had struggled for years with addiction and had already been in and out of jail several time . In December of 2009 , he decided to take his own spirit . He walked to a park with a six - pack of beer and enough Vicodin to successfully commit suicide . Unfortunately , the Police discovered Hannigan before being able-bodied to ingest all of the painkillers and charged him for having an open container of alcohol in a public place .
At the time of his arrest Hannigan still had 22 grams of hydrocodone , or 31 Vicodin pills in his possession . According to Florida jurisprudence , having between 14 and 28 grams of this particular painkiller requires a compulsory 15 - twelvemonth sentence . This shocking penalization has allowed Hannigan another undesirable lease on life .
http://famm.org/todd-hannigan/ Via FAMM.org
2. 1,000 Lashes and a 10-Year Prison Sentence for Blogging
The international community has strongly speak out against the Saudi-Arabian Arabian administration for the outrageous and inhumane punishment of blogger Raif Badawi . Raif is guilty of make the Free Saudi Liberals web log and attempting to initiate a talks about human rights , woman ’s rights and secularism . According to the practice of law of Saudi Arabia the prescribed criminal offense is diss Islam .
Since May of 2014 , Raif has been serving his 10 - class conviction and was schedule to take in 50 lashes every Friday . A committee of eight doctor test him in prison and see that he is no condition to endure another lashing . Despite Raif ’s genial and forcible state the lashings are require to resume at any time . Even spoilt is the prospect of a retrial where Raif may be charged with renunciation , a law-breaking punishable by end . Raif ’s wife and three children have relocated to Quebec , Canada where they are fighting for his release .
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-saudi-arabia-urged-to-halt-flogging-of-liberal-blogger-sentenced-to-1000-lashes-9967008.html Via The Independent
1. 384,912-Year Prison Sentence for Failing to Deliver the Mail
Gabriel March Grandos from Palma de Mallorca , Spain , was 22 years old when he was condemn to 384,912 yr for flunk to deliver 42,768 letters . Failing to give birth mail apparently constitutes fraud concord to the Spanish judicature . Grandos was sentenced to 9 year for each of the letters that he failed to deliver . While it is unclear if the outrageous sentence request by the Spanish pursuance has been reduced , it still remains the longest prison sentence in history .
By comparison , 34 - year old William Morse of Dawson Springs , Kentucky , failed to redeem nigh to 45,000 letters between 2011 to 2013 . According to his attorney , Morse was disassociate and was responsible for pluck up his small fry during the 24-hour interval . To speed up his path Morse adjudicate to dump the undelivered mail in the cellar of his deceased female parent . William Morse was sentenced to 6 month in slammer and give a $ 15,000 fine .
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mailbox_USA.jpg Via Wikimedia
