The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that former high school teacher Stacey Dean Rambold must be re-sentenced in the 2007 rape of a 14-year-old girl. Rambold’s original month-long sentence in prison sparked national outrage and the state’s highest court has ensured that the judge who handed out that sentence will not be the one to give Rambold a new sentence.
The justices decided on Wednesday that the original sentence was not adequate and that Rambold should have been sentenced to at least two years behind bars, reports CNN. They also said that Judge G. Todd Baugh, who gave Rambold the original sentence, cannot give him a new sentence. A new judge is needed to “to preserve the appearance of fairness and justice,” the court said.
Authorities say that Rambold raped a student, Cherise Morales, at the high school where he taught in 2007. Morales committed suicide in 2010, just before the trial was set to begin. Rambold did agree to plead guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and Baugh gave him a 15-year sentence. However, he sparked outrage in August 2013 when he suspended all but 31 days of the sentence. He finished the sentence a month later.
According to the Associated Press, Rambold’s attorneys said they believed their client’s original sentence was appropriate. They suggested, like Baugh had, that Morales was partly to blame for the rape, citing videotaped interviews with her. However, these tapes have not been made public.
Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said that the unanimous decision by the court on Wednesday means that Rambold will have to spend at least two years in jail. Rambold will remain free until a court date, which has yet to be scheduled.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}