Judge admits he made mistake in sentencing Misty Roberts, who faced up to 17 years in prison after conviction

Judge admits he made mistake in sentencing Misty Roberts, who faced up to 17 years in prison after conviction

The former Louisiana mayor Misty Roberts has completed the 90-day jail sentence she received for raping a 16-year-old boy while still in elected office and been released from custody, according to state corrections records.

The 44-year-old finished her jail term on what was the Labor Day holiday in the US, one week after the judge who presided over her case rejected a request from prosecutors to force her to serve a harsher sentence.

Judge Kent Savoie nonetheless acknowledged in court he was mistaken to have based Roberts’ sentence off of a list of more than 30 cases that were resolved through plea deals, unlike her prosecution, which culminated in a jury trial and guilty verdict, the Louisiana news station KPLC reported.

“I asked someone to get me a list of cases similar,” Savoie was quoted as saying on 31 August. “I made an assumption, and that assumption was wrong.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    231·
    6 days ago

    At least they used the word “rape” this time instead of seduce or something.

    They are doing that here because the charge she was convicted under is colloquially known as statutory rape, which they mentioned in the article. The media has to be very careful about how they refer to people, who have not been convicted or otherwise admitted to something, because everyone here is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

    And even when a ruling is made, the type of ruling matters. Der Gröpenfuhrer was found liable in a civil suit for sexual assault and defamation, but it was not a criminal case. And even the sexual assault didn’t meet NY State’s archaic standards for what is “rape”. And even the judge there admitted that the sexual assault, while not meeting NY State’s definition, was for an act that most people would call “rape”. Yet, the idiot can say “The court found I didn’t rape her”, and still be technically correct, even if they statement misses the point entirely.

    • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.caEnglish
      12·
      6 days ago

      You can say someone was charged with rape, you can say someone was convicted of rape and awaiting sentencing, you can say the convicted rapist was released. All of those are statements of fact at various points of the timeline this trial took place on whic, in America, releases you from libel.

      If you search for Misty Roberts in the news, you will see a number of articles. Some say sex with a child which, while not saying ‘rape’, isn’t exactly stigma-free. A number of them used rape, both before and after the conviction. Others use sexual abuse, one used the phrase ‘romping with teen’ which isn’t even necessarily a crime in many places.

      The chosen phrase used isn’t an accident, and in plenty of circumstances uses a less damning term than is legally required to avoid libel, even in this one.