Sentencing a Defendant Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice: Sentencing a Defendant

The conviction of child sex offenders for each state and region is different since this is considered a debate upon what type of intentions and urges were involved when the crime was committed. The law has to look into the matter with serious comprehension so that the guilty are punished fairly, and the victims are served their justice. This paper aims to highlight a scenario where a person fondled a child and has some history of misdoings and his convictions.

With the details provided about Mario Gonzalez, 34 years old, who fondled a child improperly, it should be noted that he is subjected to punishment under section 3b of Justia Law US. He has violated the Constitutional statement by ‘fondling or touching the child under 14 years of age’, which could be under the effect of a drug (Justia US Law, n.a.).

The man admitted that he was drunk when he committed the act. Also, the US law court rejects the defense of the criminal who has voluntarily injected himself with the intoxication; otherwise, the involuntary injection could have been another case where some other person would have forcefully made him drink. However, this was not the case in Mario’s situation.

The type of sentence that I would give the defendant based on the information provided would be imprisonment for fifteen years since he has the ‘intention’ of doing wrong to a child. The intention itself is a dangerous commitment to a crime. It is as worse as rape as he got drunk himself instead of someone forcefully imposing it on him. He was aware of his actions.

Secondly, he had been a habitual drinker. He had intended to behave incorrectly, which he was not found guilty of due to an arresting officer’s procedural error. This could hit upon his inner perceptions that he could be released each time under the influence of intoxication of alcohol. He should know that child fondling was the action he conducted on his willpower, not upon forcing someone else.

The length of the imprisonment time is based on the research evidence of a man who was found guilty of fondling three children, for which he was sentenced to 45 years in jail; 15 years each for every child (Burkitt, 2017). The children’s ages were from 3 to 8 years. The defendant’s lawyer argued that his disturbing behavior could be attributed to his psychological disorder.

Since his weird actions were reported several times in the past, he could not be forgiven this time by the court. In the same way, Mario could not be excused this time as he does not differ from any mental condition and could not be justified on the terms of alcohol intoxication. The intention matters in his case, which applies to his drinking habit and child fondling.