Boing Boing is reporting that Peter Watts, the Canadian sci-fi author who was convicted of feloniously getting the shit beaten out of himself by over-eager U.S. border guards, will not go to jail. (For background, go here and here.)
Good. That he will have a criminal record and have to pay a fine is an injustice but the alternative was much worse.
Keep an eye on Watts’ blog as he’s promised some comment on his sentence later today.
Personally, while some could argue that — if you ignore nasty details like the pepper spraying, the beatings and the lying border officials — this is an example of the American legal system slowly working to a fair conclusion, I’m still planning to avoid the United States like it’s a rabid dog for the foreseeable future.