Sex abuser jailed for 4,060 years
Parole possible in 3209 after teens were subjected to 'shocking' assaults
The Associated Press
updated 4:01 a.m. CT, Thurs., July. 3, 2008
WEATHERFORD, Texas - A man was sentenced to more than 4,000 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting three teenage girls.
A day after finding James Kevin Pope guilty, jurors sentenced him to 40 life prison terms — one for each sex assault conviction — and 20 years for each of the three sexual performance of a child convictions.
At the request of prosecutors, state District Judge Graham Quisenberry ordered Pope to serve the sentences consecutively, adding up to 4,060 years. He will be eligible for parole in the year 3209, according to the Parker County District Attorney's Office.
"We believe it was a just result," prosecutor Robert DuBoise said, adding that he was "overwhelmed" with the judge's decision to stack the sentences.
Pope, 43, abused the girls for nearly two years. It came to authorities' attention earlier this year after Pope made several inappropriate comments to a friend, who notified Child Protective Services.
During the trial, the teens testified about the abuse, and their sexually explicit photographs were shown as evidence.
'Traumatic'
But Rick Alley, Pope's defense lawyer, told jurors in closing arguments that the victims were incapable of understanding what happened, the Weatherford Democrat reported in its Wednesday online edition.
"If it was as traumatic as they indicate, they would be able to give you (specific dates and times of the incidents). Simply because it's shocking doesn't make it true," Alley said.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, a U.S. Secret Service agent testified that while examining Pope's home computer, he found more than 200 images of child porn.
Later Wednesday, some jurors said the case was difficult because of the subject matter.
"We were careful not to make any mistakes in viewing and evaluating the evidence," said juror Dale Lewis.
As absurd as the sentence number is, I can't help but laugh. Texas may have some backwards nonsense to contend with but every now and then it seems to all just come together.
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I'm sorry, this is excessive. People get much less for second degree murder. This happened because anti-sex-offender hysteria and the fact that in Texas a woman's sexual purity is judged more important a value than her life.
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The title should've been "Pope jailed for 4060 years for sex offences". As an aside, I find it insane that such a state would allow circumcisions to go unpunished and then criminalise this so severely.
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Keep in mind that his sentence is so large because he was convicted on 43 separate felony counts. If the maximum sentence for child rape had only been two years, he'd still be in jail for the rest of his life.
So what's so extreme about this sentence? The fact that the maximum sentence for child rape in texas is apparently 100 years? If that is excessive (I haven't really thought about it, so I have no opinion), then what should the maximum sentence be?
Yeah, kinda excessive for a person suffering from a mental illness... and frankly kinda silly. What are they going to do, have a parole hearing at his grave-site in two thousand years? Talk about good behavior...
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Alyrium Denryle wrote:Yeah, kinda excessive for a person suffering from a mental illness... and frankly kinda silly. What are they going to do, have a parole hearing at his grave-site in two thousand years? Talk about good behavior...
Perhaps they can do so on the Day of the Dead. It'll at least give them an excuse to exhume whatever remains of his bones.
However, as Vain said, he would still spend the rest of his life in jail due to them charging him on every crime. Either way, he's going to die in prison, whether they give him two years for each charge or two-thousand.
I am reminded of the movie Dragnet, with Ackroyd and Hanks.
"He was sentanced to 473 years, but is confidant that with time off for good behaviour, he can cut it down to 236."
Hmmmmmm.
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Illuminatus Primus wrote:I'm sorry, this is excessive. People get much less for second degree murder. This happened because anti-sex-offender hysteria and the fact that in Texas a woman's sexual purity is judged more important a value than her life.
No this isn't excessive. People convicted of murder should just be sentenced for 8000 years.
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As absurd as the sentence number is, I can't help but laugh. Texas may have some backwards nonsense to contend with but every now and then it seems to all just come together.
