11 Year Old Conviction Still Hampers Ex-offender In Attempt to Serve His Country

In 1994, amid an American competition for a spot on the figure skating team for the Winter Olympics of that year, Shane Stant was the guy with a makeshift club who whacked Nancy Kerrigan across the knee, ending her bid for that slot. This was part of a plot by Tonya Harding's then-husband to promote his wife to the Olympics in Kerrigan's place.

Mr. Stant served 14 months in prison for conspiracy. Released, he has committed no further crimes that the media has felt the need to document in the years since. In fact, Mr. Stant --now a seaman with the United States Navy-- recently applied to the Navy's special forces unit, the SEALs, but was informed that they could not accept anyone with a felony assault conviction on their record.

Thus Mr. Stant was in a Portland, Org. courtroom last Thursday (1st, Dec) appealing to have his conviction expunged, and thereby be considered moral enough to engage in US government-sanctioned covert operations in foreign countries.

The Multnomah County Circuit Judge Julie Franz, presiding, however, opined that her state's laws do not allow felony-assault level convictions to be taken off the permanent records of ex-cons, and so denied Mr. Stant his request.

A letter from Ms. Kerrigan, the original victim of the attack, was read in court that said in part that granting it "would send a message to others that such a crime can be swept under the rug."

It's one thing to consider that the State of Oregon's criminal procedure laws clearly bear the mark of pettiness in it's inability to set a limit for when a person stops paying for a less-than capital offense crime. After all, Mr. Stant in this case not only appears to have led a law-abiding life since his release, but the US Navy found him trustworthy enough to where he is entrusted with the full responsibilities of an active-duty seaman. When does he no longer have to expect oppressive reprecussions from his offense?

Worse than this is the even more small-minded "Victim Cult" mentality of Ms. Kerrigan's letter. Its irrational premise (that giving Mr. Stant relief from his conviction's burden would constitute a "sweeping under the rug" of the crime in general) is venal to the point of silly. Is Ms. Kerrigan afraid that granting Mr. Stant's request would be the equivalent of transmitting a clarion call to pipe-weilding knee-cappers across the country? Are tall, skinny, brunette Barbies-on-Ice all to fear for the safety of their knees whenever they enter a skating rink?

I am firmly convinced that this "Victim Cult" mentality is the most important aspect of the American public's perception of crime, criminals, and restorative justice. If we're ever going to see some reasonable amount of relief for the men and women leaving our prison systems, so that they can successfully re-enter society with the chance to again be contribuing members. the un-spoken "tenet" of this Cult's followers that the perpetrators MUST keep paying for their offense long after they have satisfied the State's sentence needs to be challenged, brought into the light of day. Shown for what it is, and analyzed with the unflinching eye of rational logic, such thinking patterns will wilt away, much like a weed that's been pulled from the soil and left aside to dry up and blow away.