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by high_na_euv 622 days ago
>District Court Judge Brian Morris said he struggled to come up with a sentence, but had to deter anyone else from trying to "change the genetic makeup of the creatures" on the planet.

Whatever the judge is feeling today, huh?

5 comments

I don't know what you did wrong, but don't worry, I can be very creative
They do know what he did wrong: a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and substantively violating the Lacey Act. He pleaded guilty to both charges.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/montana-man-sentenced-federal...

If someone breaks the law, but the judge can't find fitting a sentence, is it justice for them to not be sentenced at all? Change the crime to something like robbery, extortion, murder, etc.

(This is just a rhetorical question.)

That's literally the opposite of what the judge said. How did you translate "I struggled to find the correct solution" to "I just went with whatever"?
>but had to deter anyone else from trying to
My experience with jury duty this week has reinforced the fact that judges are humans, just like the rest of us, for better or for worse.
Ever heard of the Hungry Judge Effect?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_judge_effect

I think that study, though heavily cited, is now considered to be a pretty shaky conclusion, even if not actually disproven.