After exploring the case I still think the fines were too much. The person who makes $100k a year would take 5,550 years to pay it off. To give you an idea how long that is, Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago. Jones’s family will be paying this off to the point where the USA will probably no longer exist before the debt is payed. That’s the punishment. Let’s look at the crime…
Calling people fake/actors who are grieving. Is it a douchey thing to do? Absolutely. Is it so bad that each victim needs millions of dollars? Not really, no. Jones isn’t that popular that when applying for jobs or any other necessity, his opinion of them prevents them from providing for themselves. On top of that, if you actually read my initial analysis of the case (which you probably skimmed at best) you would see what I said about his followers on the first point as well as the fact that none of the defendants showed evidence of death threats. That being said, I could understand a few million. But not close to $1 billion. Jones isn’t Elon musk. Jones claimed in other places that he turned in those documents. So the question then arises as to whether or not he did and something happened in the process where they weren’t received, or if he was lying about it. And without solid evidence, neither can be determined with confidence.
So tell me, how does accusing someone of faking tears over their child’s death warrant a sentence of a fine that simply cannot be paid off even hundreds of generations later? It’s simply unjust in comparison with what the plaintiffs claimed was done to them.
