Last week, a 40-year-old Iowa man named Christopher Handley was sentenced to six months in prison, three years of supervised release and five years of probation. His crime? No, he didn't torture anyone. They don't throw you behind bars for that in this country. They put you on Meet the Press. Mr. Handley didn't harm anyone at all except, quite arguably, himself. His crime was that he had a big collection of Japanese manga, some of which depicted underage females engaged in sexual activity.
It is worth noting that nowhere in his alleged crime were there any actual underage females. There were no claims that anyone had actually been molested, either by Handley or by those who made the manga he'd purchased. These were all drawings of imaginary underage females. It is also worth noting that Mr. Handley is an adult with no criminal record — he even served in the U.S. Navy — and it was not claimed that he'd shown his collection to children or in any way tried to replicate any actions depicted in it. He was charged merely with having the stuff in his home for his private inspection.
Initially, he faced up to fifteen years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. A threat of that magnitude is enough to make most people grab for a plea bargain…which Handley did, pleading guilty to charges of possessing "obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children." If he'd maintained his innocence and battled on, it would probably have kept him "imprisoned" (in the non-literal sense) for a lot more than six months. It's a deal anyone might have grabbed…but people should not be put in that situation. And our law enforcement forces and prosecutors should not be wasting time on this kind of thing…a fact they probably know. They can't have believed life in Iowa will be better with Christopher Handley behind bars for six months. At best, they knew it would be an easy "win" and some nice headlines that gave them credit for protecting children.