Maybe the Bible had it right after all

While many items in the Bible, like any text, can be taken out of context or slanted to meet a particular point of view, here is an example where "an eye for an eye" could be appropriate.

A teen who pleaded guilty to two felony charges in connection with a mob attack in Mount Clemens in May that left one victim hospitalized with severe head injuries was sentenced this morning to 19 months in a youth prison.

...under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, a state law that allows [the currently convicted felon] to have no public criminal record if he succeeds at the youth prison for offenders ages 17 to 21.

[the judge] also ordered [the convicted felon] to earn his GED while in the youth home.

[The convicted felon] admitted last month to throwing a brick through a side passenger window of a passing vehicle on North River Road near the Gibraltar Trade Center on May 31.

A review date is set for March 2010 to determine whether [the convicted felon] will be released from the youth home.

Kauffman's wife, Angela Kauffman, cried openly as she addressed the courtroom.

"May 31 plays in my head over and over again. This was just a random act of violence," she said. "I would never have thought that driving down North River Road that it would've changed my life forever. I miss the Andy I used to know."

Angela Kauffman told the court that Andy has suffered brain injuries as a result to the beating he received when he got out of the car the night of the incident. She said their three boys, ages 9, 7, and 3, are upset that their dad can't do the things he once did with them.

"[The convicted felon] sentenced Andy to his confinement ... his brain injury," she said. "No one knows when that sentence will end."

From the Detroit News (link)

While I'm not suggesting that the American justice system should sentence [the convicted felon] to having a brick thrown at his skull, it certainly seems more fair than getting one's GED and an expunged criminal record by 2010.

Because in 2010, when Andy Kaufman's children are 11, 9, and 5 years old, they still will have lost years with the father they knew on May 30, 2008. And future years as well.