Judge Michael Cicconetti, who is known for making the punishment fit the crime, has decided that, instead of going to jail for 60 days, Victoria Bascom, who has deliberately not paid for her journey, for which the cab driver took her to court, could instead walk 48km - the length of the taxi trip - over48 hours. She is also sentenced to four months probation and had to pay $100 (R1215) in fines for the taxi company.
The Ohio judge popular for his eye-to-eye punishment. He has made a teenager who was playing music too loudly to sit on his own in the woods in silence. He has made a man who shouted at the police, calling them "pigs", stand with real pigs in a town square for two hours. He made a woman who abandoned a litter of kittens, to sleep on her own in a park with no shelter or blankets for a night.
The judge Cicconetti said, "I'm not doing this for the publicity. I'm doing this to get through the people. These actions have to stop. Whatever the crime may be - theft, driving around a school bus or driving under the influence - this needs to stop. If we can help someone out there to change their behaviour and stop one or two cases, that's the idea."
Cicconetti has been handing out unorthodox punishments since the mid-1990’s. “We started small,” he said in 2012. “It was more out of frustration because after a year or two years, we were seeing the same people come back, with the same offenses. I thought, ‘There has to be a better way to do this.’ Some people, let’s face it, you’re never going to deter their conduct. It took me a while to figure that out, too. I can’t be the savior of all, because some people don’t want to be saved.”
Cicconetti’s creative punishments are reserved for a small percentage of first-time offenders and come with an alternative sentence, usually jail time, community service, fines or some combination. The judge is much appreciated by the Ohio community for his reasonable and practical sentencing.
Cicconetti’s critics say that the provocative punishments are designed to grab headlines, but legal experts say that there can be unique benefits of alternative justice, according to Jonathan Witmer-Rich, a professor of criminal law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. “This is a form of public shaming,” Witmer-Rich told, “Judges are increasingly using that as an additional way to send a message.”
By Premji
