No. The prosecution screwed up and hung a case on identity theft and wire fraud instead of 18 U.S.C. § 1030 or similar statute, so he is essentially serving time solely for destroying evidence.
So you think somebody who broke into an email account should serve more time if the wheels of justice are properly turning?
Would that imply then that other, clearly more serious crimes, that result in similar sentences, should have their sentences increased to be proportional?
I'm not asking to be judgmental, I'm honestly curious. In my mind, breaking into a mailbox isn't that big of a deal in most cases. But I can recognize an alternate argument such as "what if the mailbox in question contained corporate secrets worth billions of dollars".
In the former a year or more sentence seems excessive, in the later case a year would seem insufficient.
Perhaps then, there should be wider sentencing leeway?
Incidentally, breaking into a physical mailbox is a much bigger deal, which makes zero sense to me.
So far, most people think that physical incursions into a person's private things are more serious than virtual incursions. Perhaps it's the physical safety aspect of it that they think is important.
For what it's worth, I think virtual privacy should be treated exactly the same as physical privacy, and sadly the law hasn't quite figured that out (I think we're in agreement on this)
But I disagree with you that punishment should always be severe. I think data shows that severe punishments do little to prevent crime, and end up just costing everybody lots of tax dollars in incarceration costs.
I agree that there should be wider sentencing leeway in general. I think much more should be left to the discretion of judges.
I do not agree --- in fact, I militantly disagree --- with the notion that physical harm should be more severely punished than virtual harm. Crimes should be punished based on the harm they cause and based on society's interests in deterring crimes. The ease with which a crime is committed should not be a factor in its sentencing.
All crimes are going to get easier to commit this century.
