Judge Saldaña Forced to Reduce Unlawful Prison Sentence for Graffiti

As it turns out, a Texas judge’s fiery speech sentencing a teenager to eight years in prison for graffiti was all for show. District Court Judge Marisela Saldaña apparently didn’t understand that stacking sentences, which would have forced 18-year-old Sebastian Perez to serve four two-year prison terms consecutively, wasn’t allowed for this case. Yesterday, Judge Saldaña was forced to abide by the law and reduce Perez’s sentence to two years in prison and two years of community service, a still very sizable, serious punishment. |KIII-TV3|

Tag Judge Saldaña With Your Outrage!

Yesterday, news of a Texas judge’s decision to imprison a teenage vandal for eight years without parole caused quite a stir, with most people agreeing that the punishment was way too extreme. Judge Marisela Saldaña clearly didn’t dole out such an egregious sentence to cover the cost of cleaning up the $7,300 of damage Sebastian Perez caused, after all, his incarceration will run Texas taxpayers than $140,000. And that price tag doesn’t include the considerable public expense and burden of a four-time felon lacking credible experience or job prospects, which is what Perez will be when he’s scheduled for release at age 26 after spending nearly a third of his life locked up. Read more »