Adventures in Creative Sentencing: No Jail for No Sports

19-year-old former high school track and football standout Dwayne "Deejay" Hunter has to be glad to be finding himself not headed to prison for a felony assault conviction, though that happiness might be a little tempered by the fact that his five-year probation carries the condition that he cannot play any sports.

"We're going to see who Dwayne Hunter the person is, not who Dwayne Hunter the star athlete is," declared Judge Andrew Nastoff, as he said Hunter still has a six-year prison sentence that would be imposed if he violates any conditions of his probation.

Considering the alternative, few would call the ruling a draconian one, though one must wonder if it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Granted, the judge has mandated that Hunter must obtain a full-time job or be enrolled in school full-time, so the probation won't assure the former athlete will have too much dangerous idle time. And while the judge must believe that success through athletics has granted Hunter an misplaced sense of invincibility,it does strip him of his self-identity.

If Hunter aired a public apology, it's safe to assume it would be heavy on "a lapse of judgment" concessions. And it would be true - the crime was a dumb one from an otherwise smart kid. He was charged in July for shooting a BB gun from a vehicle on a Middletown, Ohio street in January, hitting a 15-year-old boy in the face. By the same token, Hunter graduated with a 3.4 GPA, indicating his priorities didn't end with the field.

Now a guy who had a number of scholarships waiting for him earlier this year has to make a new start to his life. Which has to be preferable to a scenario where he'd have to do it eight years from now.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.