There is an ongoing controversy about a guy being imprisoned for life due to only downloading child pornographies. Last Nov. 3rd, Collier Circuit in FL gave Daniel Vilca for life imprisonment for possessing child pornographies. Vilca downloaded and saved pictures and videos of child sexual abuse on his PC, and he got caught on January last year.
There was no trace of him raping or abusing children sexually on the 454 pornographies he collected. Even though he does not have criminal records, the court demanded life imprisonment applying first-degree murder that is the same as crimes against humanity like serial murder and kidnapping children.
On 6th last month, prior to the judgment of the conviction, the prosecutors suggested to him the 25-year plea as admitting his suspicion, but he rejected. Lee Hollander, his lawyer, immediately showed his intention to file for an appeal that the judgment was much heavier than previous similar crimes that occurred in Collier County. NYT also pointed out that “Vilca might well have received a lighter sentence had he actually molested a child.”
Steve Maresca, the assistant state attorney, expressed displeasure against it, and said “too many people just look at this as a victimless crime, and that’s not true. These children are victimized, and when the images are shown over and over again, they’re victimized over and over again.”
This case is very interesting. This is definitely a heavy sentence however I would say "due to only downloading child pornographies." This ^ context seems to undermine the fact that he had possession of child pornography in the first place. Is what he did/had wrong, yes no question, but does it deserve a life sentence? No. I do not understand how the prosecutors obtained the evidence in the first place if the defendant wasn't selling his collection or displaying it. This case seems to be unreasonable all around however is not unprecedented.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence about this ... As far as the judges conviction, it's a bit excessive. It seems like they were just making an example out of him. I understand the severity of the situation, and he definitely deserves punishment. But I think that equivocating his crime to serial murder and kidnapping is a bit much. Having said that, anything that has to do with the violation of children is just horrible, and it's probably safer in the streets if he's behind bars, because even thought they couldn't find evidence that linked him directly to the act itself, it's only a matter of time before he takes his fantasies and acts on them. So even though I think that the justice imparted to him is severe, the fact is many kids will be safe because he's locked away.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about life in prison. I do believe the person convicted needs to be placed in prison for a long period of time. I do get that once a image is on the internet you can not get rid of it. It is there for a life time. That's totally victimizing a child. Someone like that taking advantage of a child that doesn't know what will happen is just gross.
ReplyDeleteWhat Daniel Vilca did is definitely not acceptable, but I am not sure about his life imprisonment. Like Oscar said, they perhaps wanted to make an example out of this case. He must be punished for his horrible action, yet I don’t think it is imprisonment for life. I believe that whoever filmed children pornographies or took pictures of young children should be the one with heavier sentence. It is terrible what they do with the children to make money out of it. In fact, it is not only happening in one part of the world. I heard children sexual assault cases all over the world and it is heartbreaking.
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