Wesley Snipes: Victim of tyranny.

Today, Wesley Snipes became a victim of tyranny, being sentenced to 3 years in prison for misdemeanor "crimes" for not filing his taxes. I will leave aside the fact for now that there is no law specifically requiring individuals to pay income taxes, and thus Mr. Snipes committed no crime. I am nearly as troubled, if not more troubled, by the judge's justification for his draconian sentence:

During the sentencing, Snipes apologized for his actions, but the judge indicated that a major reason for the maximum penalty was to deter others from trying something similar.

This is tyranny in an especially heinous form. The role of the judicial branch is to interpret laws and, in the case when laws are broken, to apply punishment based solely on judgement of what is suitable for the crime committed. To use sentencing as a mechanism to promote your own agenda (and clearly, this judge has an agenda) is not only dishonorable, but it violates the mandate of the judiciary.