Man sentenced to 15 years for burning LGBT flag

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An Iowa man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after burning an LGBT flag hanging from a church.

Adolfo Martinez was found guilty wednesday after tearing down and burning the flag at the Ames United church of Christ in june.

The 30 year old faces 15 years for a hate crime,3rd degree harassment and being a habitual offender.

"Hate crimes against the LGBTQ community are a serious matter as they inflict emotional harm on there victims,and strike fear into the communities they target.Courtney Reyes said",the leader of the Iowa LBGTQ state org.

Reyes said that while her organization is appreciative of the seriousness of the crime,it does not see how a long sentence benifits anyone.

So even the Iowa LGBTQ organization thinks this sentence is to harsh,15 years for burning a piece of cloth,I don't know if he would have served that had he burned down the whole church.Hate crimes are bad but all he did was burn a flag,he didn't actually attack a person.

CNN

Are they trying to set a legal precedence? does he pose a physical threat to LGBTQI people? it does come across a little harsh.

You kidding me? Here you can't get that long of a sentence even from murder...

But anyway, that's overkill, especially if the building itself went undamaged.

I wasn't sure if it was one of those could be sentenced or has been sentenced. But it looks he has been sentenced to 16 years. Looks like usually the maximum sentence is up to 5 years. But the longer sentence was imposed because he is a habitual offender.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story ... 697139001/

Then again CNN says "The 30-year-old faces about 15 years in prison". Kind of confusing. Apparently he's considered a danger to the public.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/21/us/iowa- ... index.html

Holy hell, I've seen people convicted of rape getting a third of that sentence.


..Also, the term"habitual offender" is amusing to me. Makes it seem like they're kinda like smokers. "Hey Joe! Cover for me, I need to go burn a flag and shout slurs at gay people. Back in five!"

My guess he would have only gotten half that if he burned the American flag that flies in the white House lawn.

I am well aware of that. That's why I specifically said the flag on the white house lawn. Burning a flag on the average Joe's lawn would mean a year tops.

It sounds like the sentence is harsh because of his personal background as a habitual offender, so I can't find much sympathy for him.

“Repeat Offender” may be the key phrase here. We have something called a “Three Stirkes Law”, which requires courts to hand down the maximum penalty for someone who has violated the law multiple time. Tote up all the penalties for all the crimes, and they could add up to 15 years.

a cumulative sentencing....he was building up negative credit

For the crime itself it does seem harsh, but it also says he's a repeat offender and not sure what other crimes he's committed.

15 year sentence for burning a flag!
The world has gone mad.
Burning a flag is not even a crime.
Only in the USA they hand out long sentences for petty things.
What's next... maybe hands chopped off for stealing or stoned to death for adultery?

Isn’t Iowa a red state?

Whether or not it is, I think the habitual offender status was the main factor in the sentence. Even then, 15 years is a lot for destroying property.