Judge says convict too Thin, White to be Safe in Prison

AP 6jan01

TAMPA, FL -- A judge refused to send a drug offender to prison, saying the man would be a target for sexual assault because he is thin and white.

Instead, Hillsborough County Judge Florence Foster placed Paul Hamill on two years probation and sent him to a treatment center for violating probation on a previous cocaine conviction.

``He's a small, thin, white man with curly dark hair, and I suspect he would certainly become a sexual target in the Florida state prison system,'' Foster said, according to a transcript of the November sentencing hearing.

``I've been told they can't protect people like that. I'm not going to send a man like this to Florida state prison. That is cruel and unusual punishment in my book,'' she said.

Prosecutors objected at the time, but would not comment when contacted by The Tampa Tribune. They have complained in the past that Foster imposes light sentences.

Foster would not discuss Hamill's case specifically, but said her general goal is to ``help people with drug problems get rid of their drug problems.''

Her decision was praised by Bruce Rogow, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Davie.

``I think it's a statement of great sensitivity; she is probably trying to save this man's life,'' Rogow said.

But Susan Rush, a law professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, thinks Foster's statement was inappropriate.

``That's a fairly racist comment,'' Rush said Friday.