Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories of the Week - August 4, 2006 Edition

Stop me if you've heard this one: A man has been beaten by bandits and left by the side of the road. A priest sees him, but keeps walking. A Levite sees him, but keeps walking. A Samaritan sees him, binds his wounds, picks him up, and heads for the nearest town...and is promptly arrested by the Border Patrol for immigration violations and threatened with a 15-year prison sentence.

That might sound crazy to you. It probably sounded crazy to Arizona students Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz, too, up until the moment they were arrested last summer for rescuing several semi-conscious Hispanic strangers from the Arizona desert and driving them to Tucson for medical attention. When this story was first reported on at the time, my feeling--and the feeling of most people who read it--was that prosecutors would surely drop charges, given the obvious extenuating circumstances.

Nope. The case is going forward. If Strauss and Sellz are found guilty, the 24-year-old students may be pushing 40 by the time they're released. When we consider this in light of the Las Vegas law passed several weeks ago mandating a year in prison for those guilty of feeding of the homeless in public parks (see item #8), the answer to "What would Jesus do?" may be "15 to 20, with possible time off for good behavior."