Is Paris Hilton's punishment excessive?

Question

After all other folks get a lot less time for these types of offenses (maybe 1 day in jail, 40 hours community service etc).

Answer 1

Not excessive enough. She should be locked up for impersonating a celebrity.

Answer 2

If I got arrested for dui, violated probation twice and showed up late for court, I most certainly would have gotten punished severly. And I would have been sent to general population and might have been assaulted and hurt by other inmates.
And if I had a psychiatrist come to the jail and say I was going to have a breakdown, they would not have let me go on house arrest.
So I don't think she got excessive punishment I think she has gotten extremely special treatment.
But I am no lawyer and that is just my opinion. I also think that this is not her fault she has been raised to think this is normal behavior and that she is more important than anyone else alive. Blame her parents.

Answer 3

Her punishment is NOT for the original offense - it's for continuing to drive after her license was suspended, and then claiming she didn't KNOW she couldn't drive (the officers found a document in her car's glovebox that she signed that said she understood she wasn't supposed to be driving.....)

If anything, her punishment is nothing next to those of us who are being bombarded by the media about it!

Answer 4

because of her behaviour and her lack of respect for the legal system I think that she should do her full time. The law is pretty specific about repeat offenders. Remember that in California they have a " three strikes and you do the maximum sentence " law. She is getting off easy with the time she is doing. anyone else would do a year or more for that many successive drunken driving offences.

Answer 5

she was on probation when she was caught drinking and driving a 2nd time around. So, no it was excessive. She should have gotten the full 45 days.

Answer 6

no it is too weak she was driving drunk and could've killed someone. She needs to be taught a lesson. I'm surprised the sentence was so light.

Answer 7

I would have fined her to the limit of the law. The use of her money would be better for everyone.

Answer 8

yes, my point exactly, what are they trying to prove, letting out rapist so they have room for paris??

Answer 9

No i dont think its excessive. just because she is a celebrity people think she should get a slap on the wrist now you want to talk about excessive, what about the 15 yr old GIRL who was sentenced to 7 years for pushing a hall monitor?

15-YEAR-OLD GIRL GETS SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR PUSHING A TEACHER!!!


By Tracy Stokes, BET.com News Staff & Wire Services
Posted March 28, 2007 –

In Paris, Texas, last year, a 14-year-old White girl burns down her family's home. Her punishment? Probation. In the same town three months later, a 15-year-old Black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, is sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor at her high school.
Shaquanda had no prior arrests, and the monitor, a 58-year-old teacher's aide, was not hurt, according to Black leaders in the northeast Texas town of about 26,000 residents.

But in March 2006, the same judge, Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, who let the White teenage girl go on probation, convicted Shaquanda of "assault on a public servant" and sent her to prison at least until she turns 21. Officials at the Texas Youth Commission declined to discuss the case with BET.com, citing Texas law. "State law forbids us from
acknowledging whether we have any youths are in our system, despite the 50 million issues of print that's been run," said Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission. "We'd have to break the law to talk about it." Civil Rights Uproar While the U.S. Department of
Education is investigating the incident; the case has civil rights groups in an uproar.

"I don't understand the judge's rationale for his decision," Dr. Howard Anderson, president of the San Antonio Branch of the NAACP, told BET.com. In highlighting what he called an egregious miscarriage of justice in a town with a long history of civil rights abuses, Anderson pointed to the case of the 14-year-old convicted arson (whose name was not released because of her age), who was slapped with probation, and the case of a 19-year-old White man in Paris, convicted of killing a 54-year-old Black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck. The latter, he said, was also sentenced to probation and told to send the family a Christmas card every year.

"Then you have Shaquanda's case," Anderson said. "She pushed a hall monitor, and she gets seven years confinement? If I look at all three of these sentences, and I'm not a lawyer, I have to wonder what the judicial system is doing. In this particular case, what is this judge doing?" Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who heads the state NAACP branch, told BET.com that Shaquanda was merely trying to defend herself. "All she (Shaquanda) did was grab the aide to prevent a strike," Bledsoe said. "It's like they are sending a signal to Black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated."

Sad History and keeping Blacks in their place is nothing new in Paris, say leaders, who remind that it's the site of the first highly publicized lynching of a Black by a large White mob. In 1893, fugitive Henry White was captured in Arkansas and brought to Paris, where he was tortured and burned alive on a train bed as more than 10,000 angry townsfolk cheered and jeered.

Activists say that the Shaquanda sentence is nothing more than a modern-day lynching. Cotton has been incarcerated at a youth prison in Brownwood, Texas, for the last year on a sentence that could run until her 21st birthday. But like many of the other youths in the system, she is eligible to earn early release if she achieves certain social, behavioral and educational milestones while in prison. But according to The Chicago Tribune, officials at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex repeatedly have extended Shaquanda's sentence because she refuses to admit guilt and because she reportedly was found with contraband in her cell - an extra pair of socks. "She's not admitting any guilt, because she doesn't feel that she did anything," Anderson told BET.com. "Not to mention, who saw the pushing, if it did occur?"

Cotton's mother, Creola, who Anderson describes as "strong-willed," said her daughter was singled out because she accused the school district of racism on several occasions.

In fact, 12 discrimination complaints have been filed against the Paris Independent School District in recent years. District officials dispute the charges, but the U.S. Department of Education, which is still investigating the case, has reportedly asked the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved. In 1998, Paris, Texas, was named
the "Best Small Town in Texas" by Kevin Heubusch in his book The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.

Are you interested in reaching out to Shaquanda? You can write a directly to her at the address below:
She also receive mail here:
Ron Jackson Correctional
Complex,
Unit 2, Dorm 4
P.O. Box 872
Brownwood, Texas 76804
1125308

Now after reading that you ask again do you feel like Paris Hitlon's punishment is excessive!

Answer 10

ef that chick.