US 200-year porn sentence stands
02.MAR.07
UNITED STATES â The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a high school teacher from Arizona sentenced to 200 years in jail for possessing child pornography.
Morton Berger had claimed the sentence was so disproportionate to his crime it breached the constitution.{{more}}
If the 52-year-old had been tried in a federal court or lived elsewhere he would have received a lighter sentence.
But he was caught in Arizona with thousands of images of child abuse on his computer.
The state has the nation’s toughest laws on child abuse and exploitation.
Indeed, the prosecutor had asked for a 340-year sentence but the trial judge imposed the minimum of 10 years for each of 20 images – to be served consecutively for a total of 200 years without the possibility of probation, early release or pardon.
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