I am wondering what you Steemarians think of this 68 YEAR sentence to a man for aiding the Bundy Ranchers? A woman who purposely smothered her 2 years old daughter and sent a "last picture" to the father is getting a minimum of 16 years (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-40739654)..... What in your opinion is ethically worse?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/27/arizona-man-gets-68-years-in-bundy-standoff-case.html
Arizona man gets 68 YEARS in Bundy standoff case
Published July 27, 2017 Associated Press
Oregon standoff ends in shootout, Ammon Bundy arrested
LAS VEGAS — A federal judge sentenced a Phoenix man Wednesday to 68 years in prison for his role as a gunman in a standoff that stopped federal agents from rounding up cattle near the Nevada ranch of anti-government activist Cliven Bundy three years ago.
Prosecutors had sought a maximum sentence of 73 years for Gregory Burleson after he was convicted of threatening and assaulting a federal officer, obstruction and traveling across state lines in aid of extortion.
But Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas knocked five years off the recommendation, noting that the 53-year-old Burleson has gone blind, has serious health issues and was once an informant for the FBI.
Burleson's attorney, Terrence Jackson, said he will appeal.
'Scare and bullying tactics'
Navarro said she believed Burleson and other armed men used "scare and bullying tactics" to put federal agents in such mortal fear that they abandoned attempts to enforce court orders to round up Bundy cattle in April 2014.
Navarro said the government employees suffered lasting psychological harm as a result of the encounter.
"Even though a shot was not fired," the judge declared, "the injuries were very real."
"Even though a shot was not fired, the injuries were very real."
- Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro
Bundy is a states' rights advocate and a leading figure in a decades-long fight by ranchers and others who maintain the federal government has no authority over vast stretches of public lands in the western United States.
Defendants in the case have maintained they were moved not by anti-government sentiment, but instead by images of U.S. Bureau of Land Management agents using stun guns and dogs against Bundy family members.
Burleson was not working for the FBI when he called for Arizona militia members to go with him to the Bundy ranch, and he didn't apologize Wednesday for traveling to the scene of the tense standoff.
The confrontation pitted heavily armed federal agents at the gates of corrals where several hundred Bundy cattle had been rounded up, against men with assault rifles on an Interstate 15 overpass and hundreds of protesters in a dry riverbed below.
"Yes, I was down in the wash," Burleson told the judge. "I did not go with the intention of killing anybody or assaulting anybody. It wasn't a planned tactical assault as the government says we did."
Burleson also conceded later posting "alcohol-fueled rants and raves" on Facebook about his role in making the government back down.
'Mesmerized by his fame'
Defense attorney Jackson characterized Burleson as "mesmerized by his fame" after a photo was widely circulated showing him "holding a rifle in sort of a combat pose."
"It made Mr. Burleson feel important," Jackson said.
Burleson didn't testify during his April jury trial.
Jurors found co-defendant Todd Engel, 50, of Idaho guilty of obstruction and traveling across state lines in aid of extortion. Engel could face up to 30 years in prison at sentencing Sept. 28.
Two months of testimony failed to reach verdicts for four other defendants who are being retried.
Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan, and two other defendants are due for trial later this year. Six others, including two other Bundy sons, are slated for trial next year.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-40739654
Cody-Anne Jackson jailed for suffocating daughter, 2
Cody-Anne Jackson sent a photo of her daughter Macey Hogan before killing her
A mum who suffocated her two-year-old daughter after sending the toddler's father "one last picture" of her has been jailed for a minimum of 16 years.
Cody-Anne Jackson killed Macey Hogan after texting her ex a message reading: "Sorry, just thought you deserved one last picture and memory of her."
The 20-year-old, of Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, denied murder but changed her plea part-way through her trial.
She was jailed for life at Stafford Crown Court.
His Honour Judge Michael Chambers QC told the young mother she had committed a "wicked and appalling act".
She also tried to take her own life because she was angry and resentful towards Macey's father Paul Hogan after he ended their relationship a week earlier, the court heard.
Latest on this and other stories in Stoke and Staffordshire
Staffordshire Police released the harrowing 999 call made by Jackson after she smothered the little girl.
The little girl's body was found on the floor in a bedroom on the morning of 10 October last year after officers broke into her home.
Media captionPolice were called after the chilling 999 call from the girl's mother
Jackson, who was in the same room attempting CPR, was found with "superficial" chest, neck and wrist injuries.
She had written a suicide note before the killing, stating: "There's nothing for me or Macey."
Before changing her plea, Jackson claimed she woke up and found Macey's cold body next to her in bed, in between two pillows.
Police broke in through the front door at the house in Packett Street, Fenton
Judge Chambers, the Recorder of Stafford, told her: "You have had the courage to plead guilty and recognise the enormity of what you have done.
"I accept that may not have come easy but this remains a very serious case - for a mother to kill her young child, who depends on her for protection above all others, is a wicked and appalling act.
"This is not a case where you suffered from mental illness. The clear inference is that you thought about killing yourself and decided to kill Macey as well to prevent her having a life without a mother.
"That was an expression of utter self-absorption."
'Cold and callous'
Det Insp Dan Ison, of Staffordshire Police, said: "This was not a killing that occurred due to a struggling single parent, nor was it a killing where in some perverse way it was felt that Macey was being protected from someone or something.
"This was a killing that was cold and callous and set to exact revenge on Paul Hogan as he had broken off the relationship with Cody-Anne Jackson."
"It is absolutely unforgivable that a beautiful and healthy child has had her life taken away and I am sorry for the loss that this has left for Paul and his family."
An NSPCC spokesperson said: "Macey Hogan, a defenceless toddler, was robbed of a childhood that should have been filled with awe and wonder.
"Instead of bringing this happiness into her daughter's life, Cody-Anne Jackson ended it. It is only right that she has faced the full force of the law."
Reading the news can be so depressing....but I feel it is important.