Go to jail or go to church. That was the choice for a Kentucky man arrested in a theft case.Well this is certainly interesting. Unfortunately, all the articles are very short local news, so we don't know the details. From the phrasing of one report it made it seem like the church agreed to not press charges if he attended church, and I'm not really sure if that would make it legal or not.
As part of his plea deal, a judge sentenced 23-year-old James Talbot Nickell to attend Sunday services for six weeks at the First Baptist Church in Sandy Hook.
I also don't know if we'll hear anything else about it, as I don't know if anyone else could challenge it without standing. Clearly, he won't challenge it.
In the comments on that site 90% of the people are defending the choice, since "he had a choice". As a quick rebuttal, what if he had been convicted of armed robbery and the judge gave him the choice of 1 year in prison or 50 lashes? Or if the judge gave him the choice of the guy paying the judge $10k on the side or go to jail? Or if it had been a girl and the judge gave the choice of jail or sex?
Or as one of the commenters pointed out, I wonder how the people that think this is ok would feel if the choice had been between jail or attending a mosque.
A choice doesn't make it legal. I think people are just being blinded to that by the fact that they personally feel that attending church is a positive thing.
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