JUDGE OFFERS CHOICE: PAY FINES OR DONATE BLOOD

In September, an Alabama judge gave a choice to the offenders in his court who owed money for fees stemming from their crimes. They could pay up, they could go to jail, or they could donate a pint of their blood. Judge Marvin Wiggins now has an ethics complaint against him. Wiggins told the group, composed mainly of poor people, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. There’s a blood drive outside, and if you don’t have any money and don’t want to go to jail, as an option to pay it, you can give blood today. If you do not have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating that you did give blood. Consider that a discount, rather than putting you in jail, if you do not have any money.” The people in the court were told that giving a pint of blood would equate to a $100 payment on their debts, but several of them did not in fact receive that rebate. This year, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, the blood bank employed by the court that day, lost a multi-million dollar suit for selling HIV-positive blood to a local hospital.
* That’s Judge Marvin “Dracula” Wiggins.
* It sounds like he’s getting something under the table from the blood bank, and it ain’t money.
* I don’t think this is right. Taking our blood is the IRS’s job.
* Talk about a slippery slope. Next thing you know they’ll want a pound of flesh.
* How did such a backwards sounding plan come out of a progressive state like Alabama?
* Next you’ll have the corruption factor: “Quick, arrest some people with this blood type. It’s worth more.”
* Talk about your blood money.
* PHONE TOPIC: Was this wrong? Should he not have done this?