VIDEO John Grisham wants leniency for “old white men” who look at child porn

Author, attorney and former U.S. Representative John Grisham took a strong stance in regards to what be believes are often overly harsh prison sentences in a wide reaching interview with The Telegraph. While doing so he singled out the example of child pornography and distinctions he sees between pedophiles and those who just “probably had too much to drink” and looked at a little online.

Grisham said:

“We have prisons now filled with guys my age, 60-year-old white men in prison who’ve never harmed anybody, would never touch a child, but they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever. They haven’t hurt anybody, ok? They deserve some type of punishment, whatever. But ten years in prison?”

Then Grisham shared a personal anecdote of a friend who found himself in the exact situation he was referring to:

A friend of mine, ten years ago, was drinking. His drinking was out of control. And he went to a website—it was labeled, 16-year-old wannabe hookers, or something, some stupid website. And it said, 16-year-old girls. So he went there. Downloaded some stuff. It was 16-year-old girls who looked 30. You know, they were all dressed up and whatever. He shouldn’t have done it, it was stupid. But it wasn’t 10-year-old boys and he didn’t touch anything. And golly, a week later there was a knock on the door. FBI. And it was a sting set up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to catch people—sex offenders. And he went to prison for three years.

Grisham added that he has, “no sympathy for real pedophiles – God please lock those people up. But so many of these guys do not deserve harsh prison sentences.”

The author who’s sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 million books has been drawing harsh criticism for his remarks. Do you think he makes a good point about the distinctions and sentencing?