March 2

Events

• Current events

• 1999 - So just what are those guidelines for, anyway? - Florida Atlantic University professor Marvin Hersh traveled to Honduras to meet boys. He later brought a 15 year old boy back to the United States after obtaining a United States passport and social security number identifying the boy as his natural son under the false identity of "John Anthony Hersh." The two had a sexual relationship until March 28, 1996, when the boy was removed from Hersh's home by state authorities. On this date Hersh was convicted on March 2, 1999, on two counts of transporting a minor in foreign commerce with intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity, one count of conspiracy to travel in foreign commerce to engage in unlawful sexual acts with minors, three counts of receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in explicit sexual conduct, one count of possession of a computer disc containing images of child pornography, one count of making a false statement in an application for a United States passport, one count of harboring and concealing an illegal alien, and one count of making and using a false birth certificate and presenting it to the Social Security Administration to obtain a Social Security card. The sentencing guideline for such a case was between 10 and 13 years. Judge Alan S. Gold sentenced Hersh to 105 years in jail. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that sentence was proper.

• 2002 - Sex, drugs, and armed robbery? T.I.S. the season! - Wisconsin State officials reported on this date that the typical prison sentence for sex offenders had doubled since 1998. According to state statistics, the average sentence for a single-count felony sex crime - rape and child molestation included - was more than nine years in 2000, the first year in which the state's "truth-in-sentencing law" went into effect. In 1998, it was about 4½ years. By "truth in sentencing" they meant that a sentence would have to be served in its entirety in jail. In the previous three months prosecutors got sentences totaling 55 years in prison for three pedos with no parole eligibility and no time off for good behavior. Before "truth in sentencing," someone given a 20-year prison sentence was eligible for parole after five years. Even if they misbehaved in prison and weren't given parole early on, they would still be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. "We are seeing people get prison for touching," District Attorney Sandy Williams said. "Abuse is abuse. There are degrees, of course. But the more people get educated on these types of cases, the more people are saying they won't tolerate this type of behavior." Actually, educating people - real education would do quite the opposite. Alas, that is unlikely to happen there soon.