ShareThisBEDFORD, Pa. - Land surveyor Lee Geisler was researching old property records not long ago when he spotted a criminal record from the 1890s. A man was sentenced to three days in the stocks and a public lashing for marital infidelity.
This week Geisler saw what he regarded as the modern-day equivalent: two women in this town's historic courthouse square, holding signs that read: "I stole from a 9-year-old on her birthday. Don't steal or this could happen to you."
Tina Griekspoor and her mother, Evelyn Border, agreed to stand with the signs for 4 1/2 hours to avoid jail time for what Bedford County prosecutors called theft and what the defendants contended was mostly an innocent mistake.
The two used gift cards that they found in a Wal-Mart store after the child misplaced them.
"I'm just standing out here being humiliated in front of people," Griekspoor said as a cold wind flogged her.
"I admit we did make a mistake," said her mother, across the street.
Both agreed to the penance to avoid jail time for theft of lost property.
"I'm not in the financial situation to fight it," said Griekspoor, 35, a food service worker. "I have a family I'm supporting. My husband is laid off."
Border, 56, said she found the gift cards on a box at the store in April. One was for $50, the other for $30. She said her first impulse was to turn them in.
But prosecutors said the two used the cards to purchase items and told a store clerk, who had been alerted to the lost cards, that the cards were theirs.
This was in spite of the fact that the girl's name was on the cards, said Assistant District Attorney Travis Livengood, who suggested the punishment. Livengood said the two suspects also returned to the store and tried to use the cards a second time.
"Such shameful conduct deserves to be met by equally shameful punishment," he said.
Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins plans to seek similar contrition from other suspects in what he calls the "Public Punishment Initiative."
"Be it a sign around a thief's neck, a public apology in the town square from a domestic abuser to their spouse, or cleaning out the animal cages at the Humane Society once a week, it is time that the blame and shame be focused exactly where it should be -- upon the criminal," Livengood said.
Public shame as punishment dates to the days of the Old Testament, and it was popular during colonial times in America before falling out of favor with the advent of the modern legal system.
But in the 1990s, shame began making a comeback as some judges and prosecutors sought alternative ways to punish offenders and relieve jail overcrowding.
In Boston, men convicted of soliciting prostitutes were forced to sweep the streets in Chinatown. A New Hampshire child molester was forced to take out ads confessing his crimes and encouraging other molesters to seek treatment. A mail thief in San Francisco was sentenced to appear outside the post office wearing a sign that said, "I stole mail. This is my punishment."
One of the leading proponents of this "Scarlet Letter" approach was Judge Ted Poe, a Houston jurist and now a member of Congress from Texas. During his time on the bench, Judge Poe sentenced shoplifters to carry signs in front of the stores they robbed and made sex offenders post signs on their doors warning children to stay away.
"I'm telling you, a little shame can go a long way," Judge Poe told The Boston Globe in 1997. "Some folks say everyone should have high self-esteem, but that's not the real world. Sometimes people should feel bad."
Reach Jon Schmitz at jschmitz(at)post-gazette.com. Reach Torsten Ove at tove(at)post-gazette.com. For more stories visit scippsnews.com
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