Re:Sweden brings back military conscription
by komali2 on Thursday March 02, 2017 @11:29AM
(#13775351)
I've never heard of this type of judgement. Was this in the USA? What was your uncle's crime?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Sweden brings back military conscription
by HeyLaughingBoy on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:11PM
(#13776567)
Happens quite frequently from what I'm told. Judges have quite a bit of discretion sometimes and try to sentence intelligently.
[anecdote] I used to know someone who was an addict. Judge gave her the choice of going on probation for a year, or 45 days in jail. The catch was if she took the probation offer but was picked up for drug offenses in that time, it was an immediate sentence of a year in jail.
She took the 45 days. Better the devil you know than the one you can't control! [/anecdote]
Re:Sweden brings back military conscription
by 67726e on Thursday March 02, 2017 @12:53PM
(#13776351)
This was in the US, Pittsburgh, PA to be specific. However this was during the Vietnam war. Googling around, this sort of arrangement would make one ineligible from enlisting nowadays. There's an article referring to at least one case in which someone was denied enlistment[0] because of just such a case. Further research indicates that this is asked of recruits, meaning one could hypothetically perjure himself and maybe not get caught. I couldn't find any other references to this happening today, but there were loads of waivers issued back in the days of "the surge", so it wouldn't surprise me if some folks slipped through the cracks and got a "jail or enlist" talk from a small town sheriff or magistrate.
[0] - https://www.stripes.com/news/judge-said-army-or-jail-but-mil...