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The football players were tried and convicted as juveniles (they were both 16[1]), and so the length of punishment was capped under state law. If they had been
by gamblor956 6y ago
The football players were tried and convicted as juveniles (they were both 16[1]), and so the length of punishment was capped under state law. If they had been slightly older and could have been tried as adults, they could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. (News article say that the two also probably would have to register as sex offenders once they turned 21, however, I didn't find any followup articles during my brief search.)
However, Deric played no role in exposing the rape itself. The article you cited even points out that Deric learned about the Steubenville rape case reading the NYT article about it. None of the evidence that Deric and the other members of Anon hacked and released were used at the juvenile court proceedings due to evidentiary and due process issues (and for that reason would similarly have been excluded if the defendants had been tried as adults), and (per the linked article) a lot of what they posted wasn't even relevant to the rape or the coverup; it was simply intended to embarrass and harass. At least one of the (adult) hacking victims was not involved with the coverup; they simply had the misfortune to be mentioned in the news articles as being involved with the case, and if it satisfies your moral umbrage, that is why Deric was sentenced to 2 years.
[1] https://corriganlawohio.com/felonies-in-juvenile-court https://corriganlawohio.com/felonies-in-juvenile-court. Generally, for a rape charge, in Ohio the youth defendant must have aggravating circumstances to be tried as an adult, such as a previous violent juvie commitment or the use of a firearm in the commission of the crime, which did not apply to this case. Note that these laws were passed as a response to juvenile defendants being treated as adults, on the premise that juvenile defendants are less in control of their actions and therefore should face less punishment than adults.
- Dah00n 6y ago>Note that these laws were passed as a response to juvenile defendants being treated as adults, on the premise that juvenile defendants are less in control of their actions and therefore should face less punishment than adults. We know for a fact that young men's brains aren't developed as fast as young women's brains. Either the passed law wasn't passed because "juvenile are less in control of their actions" or it is a clear case of not looking at the science they cite since 50 % of juveniles are less in control than the other 50%. I'm personally sure this is all about society being angry about juveniles being punished too harshly and the justice system seeing this as a way out instead of actually ruling as they should: on an individual basic. As it is now they cite a scientific basic and don't actually follow it at all. Also IMO it does also show that the justice system is out of touch. If you asked civilians I'm convinced that close to 100% would say rape should be punished harsher than the hacking and the hackers punishment is the one that is too hard.
- bena 6y agoThat's an incredibly fair take on the situation. And it does make sense of the difference in sentencing. Deric's crime was related to the rape case, but nothing they did affected it. They didn't garner any new indictments or convictions, they just stirred the shit.