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What are proper sentencing considerations for forty-year-old crimes?

By Douglas A. Berman

This article, headlined " Elderly Man Appeals Sentence On Historic Sex Charges," present is an interesting sentencing story from New Zeland: Neville Earnest Hearling, then 76, from Wanganui, was sentenced in March to three years and three months in prison.  He was convicted of performing indecent acts on several boys, aged between nine and 15, when he was a softball and rugby league coach in the 1960s and 1970s. When interviewed for a pre-sentence report Hearling claimed he could not be held responsible for his actions as he had a mental illness, prosecutor Nick Webby said.  "I may have offended but I am not taking full responsibility for it because of my illness," Hearling told a probation officer. In the Court of Appeal today defence counsel Jonathan Wiles said the starting point for the sentence was too high...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).