Man sent to jail for yawning

A man in the US has received a six-month jail sentence for yawning "boisterously" in court.
Clifton Williams, 33, was attending the Will County Courthouse in Illinois to hear the sentencing of his cousin, who had pleaded guilty to a drugs charge.
As Judge Daniel Rozak delivered his verdict of two years' probation, Williams let out a yawn.
The judge responded by giving Williams a six-month prison sentence, the maximum penalty for criminal contempt without a trial by jury.

The rest of the story here...

source

And justice for all... This is just ridiculous!

Its things like this that show how dark the energies are, and make you just want to throw a fit.

If people even considered what the meaning of life is, then they would not be doing this stupid stuff.

Ouch!

That's a pretty severe penalty for a Misdemeanor!

I've gotten 3 Contempt of Courts, although I was found innocent of two of them, one I did plea-bargain and got slapped with 40 hours of Community Service which at the time I thought was overly harsh. In retrospect, after reading this article, I think I got off lucky!

That definitely takes the cake over getting 6 months for Leaning With the Intent to Fall and Molesting a Cheeseburger.

Hopefully this guy's lawyer gets another Judge to vacate the verdict. Judges have bad days too and make some really bad decisions...but thankfully one of their peers can recognize this and override those bad decisions.

unreal

I still can't believe what I'm reading.

Originally posted by fraterormus
Ouch!

That's a pretty severe penalty for a Misdemeanor!

I've gotten 3 Contempt of Courts, although I was found innocent of two of them, one I did plea-bargain and got slapped with 40 hours of Community Service which at the time I thought was overly harsh. In retrospect, after reading this article, I think I got off lucky!

That definitely takes the cake over getting 6 months for Leaning With the Intent to Fall and Molesting a Cheeseburger.

Hopefully this guy's lawyer gets another Judge to vacate the verdict. Judges have bad days too and make some really bad decisions...but thankfully one of their peers can recognize this and override those bad decisions.

They are not allowed bad days, just because they are judges don't mean they are human.

Nope, this judge should be disbarred and never allowed to practice law again.

wow ppl get a lil bit of power and just take it to far for no reason...this type of stuff makes me mad...Is there anyway to take how is this stuff even allowed..i mean i can understand that maybe it did disrupt the whole court room but to me community service was all that was needed

all i can say is karma

I can see how a Judge could feel justified in this case.

Suppose this was a crime family, or gang, or repeat offenders. The Judge is disgusted by the light sentence she is about to hand down, and immediately after stating the sentence, a family member, or gang member, or affiliated thug gives a loud and intentionally disrespectful yawn in the audience to voice their triumph over a pitiful legal system. The Judge takes it as the perfect opportunity to slap him with the maximum at her disposal.

We don't know the background, the court proceedings, or the criminal records of these guys.

I can't criticize the Judge in this case without knowing more!

"So did you sell drugs, rape some woman, beat some cop, kill someone..."

"Nope...I just yawned"

""

This is insane. You can literally go to jail for anything in this day and age, as long as they slap a long name on it, like these entertaining website reveals.
www.randomhouse.com...

Read the article.

Witness in the courtroom said it was obvious that the man was trying to interrupt the proceedings.

Now, 6 months in jail, yeah, too much for just this offense, however we also don't know what else the man could have or might have been doing during this trial. He could've been distruptive more than on this occasion.

I had just logged on to the site and was listening to the news on the radio at the same time.

I could hardly believe my ears when they read this story out. (thankfully I was beaten to posting this article).

It's simply stunning that someone can be sent to prison for such a long time for yawning... it just goes to show what a corrupt and screwed up community some of us live in!

She might as well sentenced him for breathing considering both yawning and breathing are involuntary reflexes.

First, let me say that I am not big on authority figures. They often have their power for all the wrong reasons and keep that power through all the wrong means. However, I think it is important that those of us who wish to question authority, think for ourselves, and speak truth to power would be wise to do so in an intelligent and effective manner. Thus, it may sound harsh but this gentleman most likely got just what he deserved.
It appears from the article that he went to the Court that day to show his disdain for the American Judicial system which was sentencing his cousin.
All well and fine and within his rights, but his methodology was all wrong. When he chose to exercise his right to free speech by sarcastically letting out a loud exaggerated yawn just as the Presiding Judge read the sentence, he willingly and knowingly acted in contempt of court.
The man (or woman) in the black robe may or may not be personally deserving of your respect, but the Law itself (which that Judge and Jury of your peers represent) not only deserves, but demands that we all respect not only it, but each other. The Law, or the shared set of rules a society has elected to observe, is the shared illusion on which all civilization is built. When someone decides that they are above the law, or beyond the law, or not subject to the same rules as everyone else, the illusion begins to crumble. The Judge is the physical representation of the Law in the courtroom and I am guessing the gentleman in question decided he would be a smart*ss and disrespect the Judge. Thus, he most likely got exactly what he deserved: a lesson in respect.
That said, he will likely serve very little of the actual sentence imposed by the Judge, and further, based upon the lesson imparted here, he (and those of his ilk)will not likely choose to express their disdain for the system in such a juvenile and inappropriate manner.

Typical Media soundbiting, and you ATSers are falling for it?

Suppose the article said, "Small-time drug dealer arrested during Kingpin's trial for Loud Outbursts and Disruptive behaviour in an attempt to get the case thrown out!"

Would the Judge still be wrong if the headline was changed?

"Yawn" is the key word the media is focusing in on here, but it could just as well have been "Scream" or "Heckle" or any other number of semantics.

We all know that "yawn's" have been used for a number of things, just like coughs, sneezes, and hand gestures.

First off - prohibition creates crime, not drugs.

You can take any commodity, ban it, and achieve the same negative affects, short supply, high prices, and people willing to be violent to obtain their goal.

Make sugar illegal for instance, and tomorrow there will be a black market for it, all the same negative effects that surround drugs will now surround that product.

The war on drugs is a failure, and is only used to imprison nonviolent and otherwise law abiding citizens.

80% of the prison population in the US is non violent drug offenses.

2nd - this is atrocious. Our entire legal system is absurd. It's just a way to keep the poor under their thumb.

We don't need judges, lawyers or any of that, or even laws for that matter.

You don't need a law to tell you something is wrong, you inherently know when you're violating the rights of another human being.

Any laws made beyond the concern of a violation of another's rights are outright tyranny.

We need a complete upheaval of government and the justice system, and I believe its coming.

Furthermore - why do you think we're in afghanistan? It wouldn't have anything to do with the taliban taking control of the CIA's opium production in the region. Where do you think our pharmaceutical companies get the supply to make pain meds? It's certainly not grown on US soil, god no, that might give us the impression that drugs are ok and have been used throughout history.

Indigenous peoples used the coca plant in its natural form for 100's of years.

In one of my early books, I suggested that the potential significance of '___' and other psychedelics for psychiatry and psychology was comparable to the value the microscope has for biology and medicine or the telescope has for astronomy. My later experience with psychedelics only confirmed this initial impression. These substances function as unspecific amplifiers that increase the energetic niveau in the psyche and make the deep unconscious dynamics available for conscious processing.
~Stanislav Grof, M.D.

[edit on 10-8-2009 by djzombie]

Originally posted by djzombie
First off - prohibition creates crime, not drugs.

You can take any commodity, ban it, and achieve the same negative affects, short supply, high prices, and people willing to be violent to obtain their goal.

Make sugar illegal for instance, and tomorrow there will be a black market for it, all the same negative effects that surround drugs will now surround that product.

The war on drugs is a failure, and is only used to imprison nonviolent and otherwise law abiding citizens.

80% of the prison population in the US is non violent drug offenses.

Any laws made beyond the concern of a violation of another's rights are outright tyranny.

Well, I disagree with your assessment of this judge's actions, but I totally agree with the point you are making!

The U.S. has the highest prison population in the world, and the majority of them never hurt anybody or posed any danger to society!

Non-violent crimes should never carry a prison sentence. Fines, probation, community service, counseling, or whatever, but not Prison!

Yes a terrific case could be made to ban sugar! It is harmful, it probably causes more ill-health effects and deaths than all the illicit drugs combined! It has been a staple in organized crime families, political misconduct, and slavery. It is mostly imported by cartels. It is widely abused and addictive. Etc., etc.! Outlawing any commodity makes no sense at all!

Amsterdam has some of the lowest drug usage rates on the planet, and everything is legal there. In college, I dated a girl from Amsterdam, and she had never even seen most drugs. She wasn't the least bit interested in them!

The U.S. has the highest prison population in the world, and the majority of them never hurt anybody or posed any danger to society!

It's only going to get worse with obama appointing 5 lawyers from the RIAA to the justice department who intend on making piracy a criminal offense.

Jail the poor.

The government and the justice system have just become an extension of already wealthy corporations who only seek to become richer, and they will do so off of the backs of us all, as they have done for a century or more.

[edit on 10-8-2009 by djzombie]

reply to post by getreadyalready


Excuse, did I just read "yawned in attempt to throw the case out"?. How on earth would that work? Especially in sentencing. Maybe I'm missing the secret power of the magical yawn, but in no universe it could throw out a court case

Just think what he would have got for sneezing....or heaven forbid, belching!

reply to post by PsykoOps


Sure, courtroom outbursts have affected trials many times. Movie "A Time to Kill" How about the press surrounding the OJ trial, and the political and social backlash the jury had to weigh in addition to the trial facts.

Bringing your known thug buddies into a courtroom and letting them intimidate juries, or make outbursts can be effective. At the very least it could cause the jury to be sequestered and that would affect their mentality!

I am not saying that is the case here. It is just another hypothetical scenario. "A Boisterous Yawn" sounds like a pretty flowering description of some a**hole in the crowd making his opinion of the sentence known! The description could have been just as descriptive in the opposite sense, and the opinions of the reader would be opposite. We are such sheep!

[edit on 10-8-2009 by getreadyalready]