Letter to the Editor: Case of Sidney Shackleton shows disturbing disparity In sentencing

Victimless crime is defined as crime between consenting adults where there is no victim in the traditional sense. Though definitions can vary, victimless crime typically refers to recreational drug use and prostitution. Assisted suicide also can be considered victimless crime.

The viewing and dissemination of child sexual abuse material is not a victimless crime. This behavior presupposes direct involvement in the supply and demand market of child pornography. Engaging in this behavior makes one directly complicit in the abuse of a child. There is a clear victim. 

Sidney Shackleton, a Quincy man, was arrested 3½ years ago on charges of child pornography.  His bond was set at 10 percent of $200,000, which his family paid. For 3½ years, Shackleton has walked the streets of Quincy as a free man. 

Muddy River News recently published a story indicating Shackleton pled last week to a reduced felony charge, with talk of sentencing that may only include probation. 

“Charging documents in the case said that on Dec. 3, 2019, Shackleton, with the intent to disseminate, possessed a photograph of a child who he ‘reasonably should have known’ was under the age of 13 and showed the child engaging in an act of sexual penetration with an unknown adult male,” the story read.

Shackleton pled guilty. The city of Quincy, notoriously bloodthirsty for justice, seems to be relatively quiet on this matter. Though there’s no substantive legal comparison, it’s at least interesting to observe that perceived injustices in the Natasha McBride case generated outrage that went through the roof, so to speak. 

People are dead, and McBride was sentenced to prison. Whether she should have received a stiffer sentence is a matter for debate. Hers was not a victimless crime. McBride acknowledged as much by pleading, though one must remember these deaths were not premeditated. McBride did not intend to ruin anyone’s life that day but her own. Regardless, she did.

Shackleton, however, did indeed knowingly intend to contribute to the ruination of a child’s life by his behavior. It was premeditated. Shackleton is not stupid. He’s an educated man. He has a college degree. He understands “right from wrong” in the context of society’s laws, norms and established social morals. Shackleton viewed this child sexual abuse material willingly. He sought it out. He looked for it. He then chose to perpetuate this cycle of abominable sadism by distributing it. 

By the norms of our society, Mr. Shackleton is the worst kind of person. He knowingly, and with forethought, harmed an innocent child. 

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 44.4 percent of federal inmates are incarcerated for drug offenses. Remember, drug offenses are considered victimless crime. Someone wanted to buy those drugs, and someone else wanted to sell them. No child was involved, at least not in the contributing data for those statistics. Men and women are sitting in federal prison for consensual adult activity. There was nothing consensual about the child involved in the material Shackleton was consuming and intending to disseminate. 

Studies from the United States Sentencing Commission website show 99.1 percent of child pornography offenders were sentenced to prison. Their average sentence was 104 months. It seems Shackleton finds himself counted amongst the privileged 0.9 percent.

 How fortunate for him. 

According to norml.org, even though marijuana is decriminalized in Illinois, possession of more than 500 grams and less than 2,000 grams of marijuana is a Class 3 felony, punishable by a minimum sentence of two years and a maximum sentence of five years, as well as a fine of $25,000.

Let’s unpack that. Though marijuana is recreationally legal in Illinois, one can still be charged with a class 3 felony for possession of a large amount, specifically more than 500 grams. This is punishable by a minimum sentence of 2 years.

Remember, possessing and using marijuana, and selling marijuana, are victimless crimes. It is consensual adult activity. 

Shackleton pled guilty to a class 3 felony. He is looking at probation, not a minimum of two years. To quote Hamlet, “Something is rotten in Denmark.” 

Shackleton has family in the Adams County Sheriff’s Department — a brother and a brother-in-law. Conflicts of interest have delayed this case, allowing Shackleton to walk the streets of Quincy a free man for 3 1/2 years. His proposed sentencing is decidedly curious given national averages, regardless of his lack of a prior criminal record. 

This discrepancy in sentencing is indicative of a larger, systemic problem in the American justice system as a whole. This incongruity in sentencing reflects a perversion of value judgements that are malignantly viral in our justice system and have been for a long time. 

A quote from the too-often misinterpreted Friedrich Nietzsche provides a fitting conclusion to this discussion. 

“We need a critique of moral values, the value of these values should itself, for once, be examined,” he said. “What if morality itself were to blame if man, as a species, never reached his highest potential power and splendor?”