This little AP item was in my local paper this morning:
I am almost speechless. An Amish leader named Mullet going around giving forced beard and hair cuts? And this could lead to a life sentence? The jokes, they write themselves, no?
Prosecutors want life for Amish leader
Federal prosecutors want a life sentence for the leader of an Amish breakaway group convicted in a series of beard and hair-cutting attacks, saying it's highly unlikely the attacks would have happened without his involvement.
Samuel Mullet Sr. not only orchestrated the attacks, but he also held absolute control over the members of his Amish settlement in eastern Ohio near the West Virginia panhandle, prosecutors said in court documents filed Tuesday.
Mullet is due to be sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland along with 15 others convicted in the hair-cuttings who live in the settlement. His attorney last week asked for a sentence of 18 months to two years.
I am almost speechless. An Amish leader named Mullet going around giving forced beard and hair cuts? And this could lead to a life sentence? The jokes, they write themselves, no?
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2 comments:
I remember following this news story. I don't agree with him being put away for life, but there are some deeper details that article's leaving out. The guy was from a breakaway Amish sect that was bordering on cultlike activity from the people who's followed him, the hair-cutting attacks were definitely assault and had been going on for quite some time, and the whole thing was religiously motivated. Also, from what I read of interviews of him, the guy was kind of a douche. Not that being a douche means you should be locked up, but it's definitely a moe complex issue than, "some guy cut some other guy's hair and now they want him put away for life."
Oh, I agree with the hair-cutting being assaults, probably aggravated assault and battery, and that the entire thing most likely is cult-like. But it sounded to me more like a 5-10 year term, not life in prison, since no deaths were involved as far as I could tell.
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