Maybe we need to set out a plate of cookies and call in the anger managment squad to deal with these fine young followers of the prophet.

as was this guy

is the same exact thing as torture committed at Abu Ghraib.

By now, I shouldn't be surprised by the unbelievable stupidity that pollutes these boards, but I still am.

Bush and Cheney were sociopaths who seemed to enjoy the task of torturing those under their thumbs. France does not torture. Most of the civilized world does not torture. But these murdering bastards need to be locked away for the sake of innocent society.

The thread is about France's lenient sentencing for convicted terrorists, nothing suggesting torture.

Leaving known terrorists free to do their thing, though, is pretty stupid.

Where we are way too strict, they are way too lenient.

I'd take the justice system here in the UK over the US one any day of the year, certainly.

according to the Rule of Law Index.

Actually the country that the US ranks after is France who edges US on "Criminal Justice" 0.65 to 0.63.

As is often the case in Europe, they do it better than the US.

This article hits the mark

Two recent studies provide news good and bad for the U.S. legal system. The good: The United States’ civil legal system is one of the best in the world, according to the results of the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2011.

And the bad? According to this same study, millions of Americans can’t use this fine system because they can’t afford it. They have legal rights—to child support, Medicare benefits or protection against an improper home foreclosure—but they find these rights meaningless because they can’t enforce them.

“The U.S. legal system is similar to its medical system; in many aspects it is the best in the world, but many people don’t get any services at all,” says Juan Carlos Botero, director of the Rule of Law Index project.

A plethora of government and volunteer programs provide free legal aid, but they are overstretched. “Any local legal aid office will tell you that at least two-thirds of those who walk through their doors aren’t getting help because there aren’t enough resources,” says H. Ritchey Hollenbaugh, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services and a partner at Carlile Patchen & Murphy in Columbus, Ohio.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/unequal_justice_u.s._trails_high-income_nations_in_serving_civil_legal_need

I ranked the index solely on "Criminal Justice" France, Germany, Denmark and the Nordic countries rank ahead of us.

It's down right suspicious. They let known terrorists walk and didn't bother checking on what they were doing.

That isn't lenient, that's permission.

who had his 30-year reduced to 21 and this after the courts felt his 17 year sentence was too short in Supermax for a thought crime (a fingerprint on a form) and this isn't counting the 3 1/2 years in military custody held without charges.

Somehow I don't think that makes us safer.

On the subject of Padilla when a fingerprint is the only recorded evidence against you... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield

Meaning people have faith in fingerprints as if its DNA but it is very flawed.

I don't know what it is like in France but suspended sentences are offered by prosecutors all-the-time as a result of a plea bargain. I can't say what is always or usually means since the is true bargaining power, then estimated bargaining power so some may give away the house because they overestimate what will happen if they don't -- so a good chance it is offered when a prosecutor feels he was an unlikely chance he'll obtain a conviction, 3 years is a somewhat long probationary period so I don't know what to make of that since a reason why a lot of defendants will go for the suspended sentence because even if they win, it is more convenient than going to trial, you don't get in trouble you don't get a conviction. Also there is no jail time or fine involved. The "how long is the probationary period" is probably a secondary thought.

It seems the mistake was the prosecutor didn't go for the conviction in trial (if the evidence was weak he probably wouldn't have even got a suspended sentence) or he should have negotiated a conviction but depending on his attorney's true & estimated bargaining power, I can't see it being anything much more than a year or so (at best).