23 May '10 17:27>
Originally posted by no1marauderYou know perfectly well that the US is not going to give him 70 years or send him to Gitmo. That's just nonsense talk. I have no idea who thought up the 70 years nugget, but whoever did so was probably using statutory maximums which always sound ridiculous. 14 counts of lying to federal officials technically has a statutory maximum of 70 years (5 years per count), but that bears no relevance to the actual sentence. You have to look at the federal sentencing guidelines for a range of what he actually is facing.
If I'm reading the UK statute correctly, the maximum McKinnon could get for his crime in the UK is six months in jail. The claim earlier was that the US might give him up to 70 years or even toss him in Gitmo as a "terrorist".
The primary purpose of governments is to protect the Natural Rights of their citizens. For the UK government to tur ...[text shortened]... laws to accepted international norms even if Scalia and company feel that is unnecessary.