xausa
(.400 member)
03/04/08 06:07 AM
Re: leopard stuff

The prohibition from hunting anywhere in the world is a condition of probation. The defendant had to promise not to hunt, and the penalty for breaking that promise is revocation of his probation. The federal government obviously has no jurisdiction to revoke his hunting "rights" outside the United States, but if the prosecutor learns that the conditions of probation have been violated, then the defendant can be brought back into court on a petition to revoke his probation. Proving grounds for revocation of probation is much easier than trying such a case as this one, so by pleading guilty and accepting probation the defendant has in effect handed the government virtually everything it needs to lock him up if he violates those terms.

Of course, conviction of a felony means that the defendant is prohibited from possessing firearms, so were he to have been found to have used a firearm to hunt within the jurisdiction of the United States, he could also be found guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Conditions of probation can take bizarre forms. One defendant I prosecuted in Federal Court for receiving stolen goods was asked by the judge if he was a "church going man". When the reply in the affirmative was made, the judge announced that as a condition of probation the defendant would be required to go to his church with his probation officer and to stand up in front of the congregation and announce "I am a thief. I purchased stolen goods, knowing them to have been stolen."

When his co-defendant was asked if he was a church going man, he decided to say "No." Unfazed, the judge ordered him, as a condition of probation, to have a 4'X 8'sign erected in front of his house, where it was clearly visible from the street and to have painted on it in letters 12" high "I AM A THIEF", and charged the probation officer with the responsibility of seeing that the sign was constructed and that it remained in place for the specified length of time.

Neither of these parties was forced to agree to those terms of probation. They could always refuse probation and be sentenced by the judge. They both chose probation.



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