ORIGINAL: valor10
I think it does matter. Had they found the carcas within a 100 yards of the zone line, I doubt he would have been prosecuted. He new what he was doing when he KNOWINGLY broke the law. He lied about it. He'd see some cell time if it was up to me. Let's say you own some land. One morning you find a hunter gutting a deer on your property. He says he shot it on a adjacent land parcel andtracked it a couple hundred yards across your CLEARLY marked property line. Walking back to the property line, you discover his tree stand 50 yards into your property. You wouldn'twant him hammered to the max extent of the law? People like this think the law is made for everyone but them.
I would say the personally owned private property would put this in a different realm than hunting public land... as i said, there is no gray area about what the law stipulates, he either broke it by hunting out of his "zone" or he didn't... certainly the officers could have cut him some slack, but thats an enforcement decision made thru the judgement of the officer, not what the law stipulates...
and for what its worth, I just don't get the whole jail time for this offense thing... this is kinda of a victimless crime, no way should anyone ever be jailed for such an offense unless it caused the death/dismemberment of another human or something like that... no different than going over your limit while out crappie fishing... does someone deserve to go to jail for having 51 or 52 crappie when the limit is 50?? i can't see a reason why this is different in any way... to me it sounds like the villagers grabbin their pitch forks to go lynch someone for making a mistake... punish him, most certianly, but lets not forget we're talkin about breaking a hunting law, not raping, murdering, drug dealing, DUI, molesting, robbing, kidnapping and etc... in the scope of people that need to be put in jail I'd say any of those need to be there long before this guy needs to be, especially considering how minor drug offenses are taken care of these days (even folks convicted of statuatory rape are OFTEN not given jail time)...
i know i'm not changin anyones minds, not really tryin to, just tryin to understand why this offense is so terrible compared to others that are even worse and get less punishment and how some people justify that view...