Ex-airline exec gets 30 years for downloading child porn

[IMFTrader]

As much as I viscerally hate pedophiles and wish the most painful death to anyone who abuses children, I'm not sure if this severe sentence is morally justified. If this guy never touched a child, nor planned to do so, he shouldn't have to spend the rest of his life in prison. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been judged so severely if he belonged to a minority (pedophilia is rampant in the black and Hispanic communities). This seems to be the dirty old White man stereotype leading to disproportionate punishment. He certainly deserves serious punishment, but I think that this is excessive.

Robert L. Hedrick, Pan American Airways Founder, Sentenced To 30 Years For Downloading Child Pornography

BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- The founder of a South Texas cargo airline was given 30 years in prison Wednesday for federal child pornography charges, after undercover officers posing as young teenage girls said they caught him engaging them in explicit online chats.

Robert L. Hedrick was sentenced in federal court in Brownsville, Texas. The 61-year-old Hedrick – who at trial blamed former business associates for conspiring to frame him – said Wednesday that he couldn't apologize for crimes he didn't commit.

"I can't ask the court for anything," Hedrick said Wednesday, according to the Brownsville Herald. "I was framed. I didn't do what I was charged and convicted of."

Prosecutors had asked for 90 years in prison, but Hanen set sentences on other charges to run concurrently due to Hedrick's age, the newspaper reported.

Hedrick founded Pan American Airways, a cargo airline he set up in a building that once belonged to Pan American World Airways – the once-renowned airline that collapsed in 1991. Hedrick's airline ran flights between the U.S. and Latin America. He was also president of a global pool supply company and a logistics company, according to trial testimony.

Hedrick testified on his own behalf in May, jumping from secret government contracts during the Cold War to business disputes to a failed marriage.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...ced-30-years-child-pornography_n_2333417.html

 

[Max E.]

This Robert L. Hedrick guy deserves alot worse than life in prison. If he was downloading it, he was creating a demand for it, thus he played a hand in causing it, anyone who gets off on innocent underage children being raped deserves to die.

If it was me doing the sentencing, I would have went alot further than 30 years in prison, i would have sentenced him to life in prison, and forced him to serve it in the overall jail population so he got exactly what he deserves.

 

[PHOENIX TRADING]

Not speaking directly about this case but :
Can't help but think there's a wee bit of hysteria in all of this supposed child pornography/sex offender accusation racket.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from PHOENIX TRADING:

Not speaking directly about this case but :
Can't help but think there's a wee bit of hysteria in all of this supposed child pornography/sex offender accusation racket.

I understand how people can be emotionally charged by this issue, but the punishment in this case isn't fitting the crime. (Don't we have laws in this country against "cruel and unusual punishment", or has Odumbo trampled that one too?)

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

This Robert L. Hedrick guy deserves a lot worse than life in prison. If he was downloading it, he was creating a demand for it, thus he played a hand in causing it, anyone who gets off on innocent underage children being raped deserves to die.

I'm with you.

He should have his dick cut off with a dull butter knife then have it stuffed down his throat. And while he's choking on that he gets sodomized with a red hot re-bar. Preferably broadcast live on the internet.

 

[pspr]

Quote from Scataphagos:

I understand how people can be emotionally charged by this issue, but the punishment in this case isn't fitting the crime. (Don't we have laws in this country about "cruel and unusual punishment", or has Odumbo trampled that one too?

I have to agree. Looking at a picture of this, while revolting, isn't reason to take someones entire life away from them, which is what a 30 year sentence is. Maybe the thinking is that you are saving a child from being molested, but I don't think one can absolutely make that connection. We all watch burglaries and homicides on television sitcoms and movies but we aren't put in jail on the assumption that we will do the same.

 

[wildchild]

Quote from PHOENIX TRADING:

Not speaking directly about this case but :
Can't help but think there's a wee bit of hysteria in all of this supposed child pornography/sex offender accusation racket.

This is classic.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OlvNQQmsuFw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from Lucrum:

I'm with you.

He should have his dick cut off with a dull butter knife then have it stuffed down his throat. And while he's choking on that he gets sodomized with a red hot re-bar. Preferably broadcast live on the internet.

Geez... all he did was look at a picture!

 

[Max E.]

Quote from Scataphagos:

Geez... all he did was look at a picture!

If you read the article in full, from the link, it says that not only did he repeatedly contact 13 and 14 year olds online for sex, he also sent out multiple videos of himself masturbating, and was caught with over 2400 picutres of 13-14 year olds, plus 18 videos.

Id say thats more than enough to castrate the sick fuck.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from Max E. Pad:

If you read the article in full, from the link, it says that not only did he repeatedly contact 13 and 14 year olds online for sex, he also sent out multiple videos of himself masturbating, and was caught with over 2400 picutres of 13-14 year olds, plus 18 videos.

Id say thats more than enough to castrate the sick fuck.

I get your outrage. However, people get much less sentences for 2nd Degree murder.

Mostly he has engaged in sexual fantasy... never having touched a child. Is that appropriately a "life in prison" sentence? (If that's the case, perhaps I should be "put away for life" for fantasizing about the 16 yr old Phlippine girl I didn't nail when I had the chance, oh so many years ago.... in this case would not have been a crime... she was "barely legal" under state law.... but still, I would have been thought to be the "disgusting dirtly old man".)