Austin Ray is facing 5-8 years in a Federal Prison. His sentencing is for Nov. 8, 2011. Austin is being convicted of ONE count of RECIEVING child pornography at his computer, between the dates of October 14, 2010 and October 27, 2010.Which was immediately  DELETED. For those of us in this small community, we know Austin personally, and not as another name on a court roster! Austin has NEVER previously been in ANY trouble. He was a good student, a very liked and social person. Austin gets along with most he meets. Austin has been around children, and has never, nor would ever harm a child in any way.To be an "offender", shouldn't you have to actually "offend" someone?  He has sought help via therapy. Help he is being denied in incarceration. Shouldn’t we be helping him help himself? In June 2009, a former schoolteacher in Pennsylvania who downloaded images received a one-day prison sentence, followed by 10 years of probation. The federal judge, Lawrence Stengel, said the guidelines, which recommended four to five years, didn't account for the special circumstances of the case. For example, the judge ruled, there was no evidence that the defendant had attempted to molest any children. A federal judge in Green Bay, Wis. wrote: "The fact that a person was stimulated by digital depictions of child pornography does not mean that he has or will in the future seek to assault a child."He compares the long child pornography sentences with those given to online predators that drive hundreds of miles to engage in sex with minors they met in online chat groups. The mandatory minimum federal sentence for those offenders is 10 years, while receiving child porn carries a five-year mandatory sentence. Does this seem right to you? We the undersigned support Austin Ray, and think a 5 year mandatory minimum sentence is just too harsh.

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