- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 26,124
- Reaction score
- 52,122
When have I ever said I thought the videos should be released publicly?
But you are mixing up the laws.
Sunshine laws are about the public’s right to information. They have nothing to do with the crime that was committed, guilt, innocence or the severity of the crime.
Law enforcement isn’t releasing the video as a punishment. An entity (media) is requesting access to the tape.
It literally has nothing to do with the punishment for a finding of guilt, so the cruel and unusual punishment issue doesnt apply.
I think the exceptions to the sunshineaws should include disgusting material
I also do not buy into the idea that it would unfairly “ruin the lives” of the perps. They chose to do it. Publicizing the crime they committed is not ruining their lives. If their lives are ruined it was by committing a crime that if it were to become known their lives would be ruined.
And again my preference would be that the sunshine laws had an exception for the disgusting.
I didn't infer that you thought the videos should be released publicly. I just wanted to get your take on the Sunshine laws in general, especially in light of this case.
Because I think a lot of the problem is that Kraft may have been okay just taking his medicine and admitting he's wrong, but these, in my opinion, rather absurd Sunshine laws make the punishment incredibly disproportionate to the crime. I believe that people should be entitled to privacy rights (such as the right to privacy during lewd acts in places that are through to be private) even if the surveillance is legal in actually catching and convicting them. This is a misdemeanor crime and arguably a non-violent crime (let's not turn this into a debate about this, as it's just a minor point here). I think that the State of Florida is really messed up if they're going to secretly surveil someone in a private setting and then release a videotape of them engaged in very private, intimate, disgusting, acts. Just my opinion on this. I wonder if Kraft would have just pled guilty and apologized if it weren't for the video angle.