From: [boe 666] at [u.washington.edu] (Beast of Eden)
Newsgroups: alt.comics.alternative
Subject: Re: FANZINE CARTOONIST FORBIDDEN TO DRAW
Date: 25 Jun 1994 04:21:44 GMT

>The conditions of his probation are unusual. Besides being required to
>undergo a psychological evaluation and perform eight hours of community
>service each week for three years, Diana must enroll in a college-level
>journalism ethics course and work full-time. Additionally, Diana is
>forbidden to draw, have any contact with children under the age of 18, 
>and is subject to unannounced searches to ensure that he is not "creating 
>obscene materials."

That's not even the half of it; Alternative Press Review also lists that 
the punishment includes: a $3000 fine, paid off at $100/month, an 
additional $60/month probation fee, he has to pay the full enrollment fee 
for the "ethics in journalism" class, his "psychological evaluation" means
twice monthly appointments with a state appointed psychiatrist which *he* 
has to pay for ($100 per appointment) *and* he has to completely cooperate
with the prescribed treatment, up to and including being medicated.  His 
ban on contact with anybody under 18 (he's only in his early 20s) is 
lifelong because he's a "sex offender".

To say that this punishment adds insult to injury is to put it mildly.  
This punishment is totalitarian in its implications, it essentially is 
imprisonment without bars.  The psychiatric part is very disturbing, 
being reminiscent of the way Soviet dissidents (such as people who 
published samizdat (sp?) literature) were punished with imprisonment in 
psychiatric "hospitals".  (It seems like every freedom they gain in the 
former Soviet Union is followed by the loss of one here.)

It seems to me that this sentence is not only in clear violation of the 
first amendment, but also the fourth (cruel and unusual punishment).

Beast of Eden