Sentenced to life for looking

Let's face it. The old adage "You do the crime, you do the time" just isn't accurate. To make this antiquated proverb truly reflect reality, it would have to be rewritten as "You do a crime that is revolting to the voting public and happens to be a hot topic in the news media, you do the time plus another couple of hundred years to prove a point."\nSome of the criminal codes in our country just plain suck.\nA few states have extremely punitive drug laws. For example, let's look at Oklahoma. More particularly, let's examine the case of Robert Cotner from Creek County, Okla. In 1992, Cotner received four life sentences to be served consecutively. In roughly 120 years, assuming he behaves himself, Cotner may come up for parole (www.injusticeline.com).\nFour life sentences served back-to-back is pretty harsh. Now, if he did something really bad like run into a daycare center with guns blazing while chucking grenades at the playground, I would have no problem with a sentence like that. But Cotner didn't do anything like that. Hell, he didn't even hurt anybody.\nSo, what crime was so terrible that it required more than a century of prison time to make amends? Cotner was found in possession of marijuana. That's right, this renegade had less than $80 worth of marijuana on his person and it did not have a tax stamp on it. What a rebel. Thank God that villain is locked away.\nNow, slipping back into the rational world for a moment, just think about the consequences of such harsh enforcement here in Bloomington. My calculations may be slightly off.\nBut, the way I figure, if those same standards were applied on campus then about two-thirds of you reading this column would be doing so from the comfort of a steel cage, where you would be spending the remainder of your natural lives.\nDrug laws are not the end-all-be-all, though. Arizona has a much more stringent code on matter that actually is important.\nArizona applies the same punishment standards to downloading child pornography as actually molesting a child.\nNow, let me state here and now that I think it is sick and wrong for some guy to look at pictures of naked kids. And, I do believe he or she ought to be punished. However, there is a guy in Arizona serving a 408-year prison sentence for 17 mouse clicks (Arizona Republic, May 19).\nNow, that guy ought to be sitting right where he is. But, I don't think he should be serving 408 years in prison for being a pervert.\nCharles Manson, who was convicted of the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others, is serving one life sentence. That is exactly 25 percent of the sentence given to Cotner for his $80 worth of pot. It is also a mere fraction of the time given to the guy who likes to look at kids.\nManson, who brutally murdered seven people, has been up for parole 10 times thus far. His next hearing is in 2007 (CBS News, April 25, 2002). Yet, the guy who had 17 pictures on his computer will not be up for parole until 2207, provided he gets 204 years of credit for good behavior.\nI'm sorry, but Charles Manson is way worse than some pervert. \nOur criminal codes are just plain screwed up.