... I feel bad for Paris Hilton.
If she wasn't a celebrity, she wouldn't be treated this way. She'd be on house arrest right now and that would be it. She probably wouldn't have even gotten the 45 day sentence in the first place (for driving with a suspended license).
I actually think the fight between the judge and the jail as to who controls release dates and other prison decisions is very interesting. Most would think that of course the judge trumps the jail, but criminal practitioners know that judges oftentimes defer to jailors and marshals even though I believe that judges would and should win if a true showdown occurred.
Here's a prior post about a judge not backing down to the jail in a case that I was involved with.
The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
9 comments:
Accepting for the sake of argument David's point that Paris got a harsher sentence than a non-celebrity would have gotten, I still find nothing sympathetic about her in this situation. Plus, given all the media hullabaloo, this may actually be one of the rare cases in which the "harsh" punishment actually DOES deter both the potential recidivist (Paris herself), and other members of the community who might otherwise commit similar offenses -- driving drunk, or driving without their license, or showing up late to court, or carrying around 1-pound dogs in purses. But nobody is discussing the REAL story here: How soon until Scooter Libby adopts the "Paris Hilton defense" to try to avoid his (boo-hoo) "unfairly harsh" sentence?
XOXO, Semi-Anonymous West Coaster
That girl got what she deserved. EVEN in Miami, if she had twice violated (by driving) on a DUI suspension, she would have gotten jail time.
David,
What would your fee be to handle the case?
I'd have done it for a signed picture. and she would have gotten less time.
That's hot
Instead of us lamenting the woes of this ne’er-do-well, let's consider what makes us fascinated by all this…such as how the multitude of media levels (television, internet, tabloids, blogs-sorry) has spoon fed us in what we should care about. And we eat it up. With the media coverage dedicated to Hilton’s *clear my throat* plight, you would have thought an ex-NFL athlete was being “chased” by the LAPD for allegedly killing his wife and her lover. All kidding aside, there is an underlying psychosis at play here. We watch celebrities live lives with pretty cars and pretty houses and pretty people. And we lie in wait…until one of them falls…and then (cue applause) we rejoice. So is it that we love to hate celebrities or is it that we hate ourselves for loving them?
Maybe Rumpole is the sucker... A signed picture?!
WTF are you talking about Walter? Have you seen "one night in Paris?" Don't you know why we all care?
Now that is HOT.
MARKUS YOU ACT LIKE WE SHOULD BE SURPRISED THAT YOU FEEL SORRY FOR PARIS. YOU ARE, AFTER ALL, THE GUY WHO ASKED US TO FEEL SORRY FOR RODRIGUEZ OREJUELA.
IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU EVER EXPRESSED AN OPINION THAT VARIED FROM THE DEFENSE PARTY LINE.
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