Mandatory Minimum Amount of Sentencing Sanity Required Notwithstanding Mandatory Minimum Sentence (if You're in Oregon)

Here are the facts: "Veronica Rodriguez touched a 13-year-old boy when, standing behind him in a room with 30 to 50 other people, she brought the back of his head into contact with her clothed breasts for about one minute. Darryl Buck touched a 13-year-old girl when the girl, who was sitting next to him while she was fishing, leaned back to cast her fishing line, bringing her clothed buttocks into contact with the back of his hand and Buck failed to move his hand; that happened one or two more times. When they stood up, Buck brushed dirt off the back of the girl's shorts with two swipes of his hand."

Now: Guess the sentence under the Oregon Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Law. (Probation with 50 hours of community service? No? More?) "First-degree sexual abuse carries a mandatory sentence of six years and three months (75 months) in prison, under Ballot Measure 11 (1994). In each of these cases, however, the trial judge determined that the mandatory sentence was not 'proportioned to the offense' committed by the defendant and therefore was unconstitutional under Article I, section 16. The trial courts imposed shorter sentences -- 16 months in the case of Rodriguez and 17 months in the case of Buck."

The state had the nerve to appeal these sentences, but luckily the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the trial courts. But, 16 months for a woman in her 20s who had a 13 year old put his head against her clothed breasts? I concede that it's a lot closer to justice than 75 months, but I always thought Oregon was a liberal state, not a fundamentalist theocracy.

Read the Oregon Supreme Court opinion here: http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/S055720.htm