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Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

194 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Louisiana man has been sentenced to decades in prison and physical castration after pleading guilty to raping a teenager, according to a news release from the region's district attorney.

Glenn Sullivan Sr., 54, pled guilty to four counts of second-degree rape on April 17. Authorities began investigating Sullivan in July 2022, when a young woman told the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office that Sullivan had assaulted her multiple times when she was 14. The assaults resulted in pregnancy, and a DNA test confirmed that Sullivan was the father of the child, the district attorney's office said. Sullivan had also groomed the victim and threatened her and her family to prevent her from coming forward.

…

A 2008 Louisiana law says that men convicted of certain rape offenses may be sentenced to chemical castration. They can also elect to be physically castrated. Perrilloux said that Sullivan's plea requires he be physically castrated. The process will be carried out by the state's Department of Corrections, according to the law, but cannot be conducted more than a week before a person's prison sentence ends. This means Sullivan wouldn't be castrated until a week before the end of his 50-year sentence — when he would be more than 100 years old.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Friendly reminder that in 1992 the FBI embarked on a crusade that falsely convicted dozens of parents during the height of the Satanic Panic. One of the first convicts spent 30 years in prison before enough evidence of manufactured evidence and coerced testimony was unearthed to convince a court to release him.

In another classic false conviction a father of two was executed for a 2004 house fire that state prosecutors determined was deliberate arson, with the intent to murder his two children. Then Texas Governor Rick Perry repeatedly interfered with court proceedings that uncovered fabricated evidence and pseudo-scientific forensic analysis.

Finally, we've got the classic case of Alan Turing, British engineering pioneer of the computer and hero cryptographer of WW2, who was chemically castrated after being accused of gross indecency with his then-19-year-old boyfriend, following a burglary of Turing's home. Following the castration, Turing fell into a malaise and ended up committing suicide.

There are a whole host of reasons why deliberately sadistic punishments are a fucking awful idea.

Witch Hunts can use gratuitous claims to cover for scant evidence, leading to irrevocable punishments aimed at innocent people.
False Convictions resulting in maiming/death can aid in covering up the criminal incompetency of investigators.
Prejudice and bigotry can play a heavy role in the targets of investigation and degree of punishment.

Even setting aside the reflexive need to give people what they "deserve", you put far too much faith in a criminal justice system as prone to injustice as any of its subjects. The targets for chemical castration end up not being the most deserving, but the least articulate and most socially vulnerable.

You won't see a guy like Donald Trump sentenced to chemical castration for grabbing women by the pussy. But you can easily see folks in the LGBT/Civil Rights, migrant communities, or impoverished neighborhoods singled out for legal abuses by malicious or career oriented prosecutors.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I was originally going to point out that this guy pleaded guilty but really no need because I can’t argue against your point at all.

That’s a very well put point. I didn’t care about this guy because I was picturing my kid as the victim. (That’s why parents shouldn’t have anything to do with punishing the convict)

I am against capitol punishment on principle. This article just hit me wrong or right depending on how you view it.

I did not think about how these laws can be used as tools to punish “others” especially in states that are or have started criminalizing anything near LGBT. Thanks for the good point.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Man, I'm so happy to see this kind of dialog. Appropriate debate and resolution. This is so fucking rare to see these days, especially on the interwebs. Jeeze. Thanks for being open.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

We need more people like you, regardless of the topic debated.