Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. (1)

Reuters reports of a case wherein a judge in Delaware has ordered a 69-year old convicted sex offender – the man is a serial exhibitionist who targets children – to wear a T-shirt that reads “I am a registered sex offender.” This order shall go in effect after he finishes his 60-day jail sentence, and shall remain in effect for 22 months. The man and his wife own a gardening shop which is open to the public. (2)

While probably everyone who has children will agree that the young ones need to be protected from the likes of Mr. Russell Teeter, the defendant in the aforementioned case, and while many parents will applaud the efforts of Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden for his guts in granting the request of Deputy Attorney General Donald Roberts, it is a fair question to ask if this form of punishment is in harmony with the United States Constitution.

Is this punishment cruel and unusual?

From a business point of view, it might be considered unusual. After all, it is fair to assume that the business this gardening shop is doing will be dropping off considerably when the defendant will don this shirt to work for 22 months. The cruelty aspect might come into play considering that once Mr. Teeter serves his sentence, he is said to have paid his debt to society, but it appears that society will spend 22 months collecting interest.

Nonetheless, considering the serious nature of his offenses and also considering the fact that he is a serial exhibitionist, the odds are sadly in favor of his repeating this action until he gets too old to continue.

So what is the answer? While this form of punishment is not necessarily new – after all, Tennessee has used the power of embarrassment to shame its drunk drivers (3) – it is questionable that it will truly change anything. Parents will hopefully keep a closer eye on their children around Mr. Teeter, and he will hopefully be required to be registered on the websites that track sex offenders. Yet taking away his livelihood - after his imprisonment hardly seems fair.

In keeping with the Constitution, it would be much fairer to require him to serve a full term that will satisfy the residents of Delaware – if his parole is 22 months, then his jail time should be the 22 months plus the 60 days he is serving at this point – at which point a psychiatric evaluation should decide if he is fit to re-join society. Considering his track record of exposing himself to children, the odds are pretty good that perhaps he should work in a gardening shop behind bars for the foreseeable future. Yet letting him out of jail does nothing to curb his aberrant desires, and will still permit him to visit parks and other areas where children are known to be found sans his T-shirt…so what good will the shirt really do? Precious little, in my opinion.

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(1) Bill of Rights
(2) http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-11-06T131609Z_01_N03424958_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-TSHIRT.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
(3) http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/31/203704.shtml