I invite you to my sentence

This is what the pseudo invitation that appeared to be the card that is sent through social networks to celebrate a children’s birthday said. With streamers and confetti, as well as photos of García Luna and CalderRon, it read: “I invite you to my sentence.” It included, of course, the name of the judge, the room, the schedule, etc... And after countless postponements, the day and time finally arrived. Only 38 years. For some, a lot, for others, very little. Here are some of the most peculiar sentences in history. Terry Lynn Nichols, an American terrorist, was convicted of conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot. There they demolished a building using a truck bomb on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people. Among them, many children who were in a daycare center there. He was sentenced to 161 life sentences. Gary Ridgway was known as the “Green River killer,” who confessed to having murdered 71 prostitutes between 1982 and 1998. Some came to his house and walked among the bones and rotting bodies in the shadows. He was given 49 life sentences! Billy Joe Godfrey received 35 consecutive life sentences, which is equivalent to 1,050 years in prison. Godfrey pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two children between 1995 and 1999. The boys and girls were between 8 and 13 years old at the time of the attacks. However, he is accused of dozens of other cases. From the mythology where Hercules was sentenced to 12 tests that were thought impossible… to community service to free your driver’s license from so-called photo tickets, it is actually difficult to understand what judges in any part of the world base their sentences on to a greater or lesser sentence. Why did Don Neto (founder of the Guadalajara Cartel) serve more than 30 years in prison in El Gabacho? On the other hand, El Chapo was given a life sentence? Did one kill less than the other? And what about the most absurd laws in the world and history: It is forbidden to chew gum and much less to manufacture it in Singapore, which is a country free of chewing gum under penalty of a fine of 7000 dollars and even jail for those who sell it. Imagine CempaXóchitl sticking her gum on the stand! She would have ended up in jail. Now, in the city of Chesapeake, in eastern Virginia, “those over 12 years of age (including those who have already reached the age of majority) are prohibited by law from going out alone to trick-or-treat on Halloween night.” They can do so, if and only if they have a minor with them. Another one from gringos, now in Michigan: throwing octopuses is prohibited. You can end up in the first aid kit because of this law from 1952, when the Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team won the national Stanley Cup trophy after a fan threw an octopus onto the ice in each of the eight games the team played. And believe it or not, despite the fines, they continue to do it!

Nota publicada originalmente en El Heraldo de México