Victoria Lindsay Poll - 23% Favor Death Penalty for Teen Defendants

In a totally unscientific poll taken over the Internet, 23% of the respondents favored the death penalty for the defendants that allegedly beat up Victoria Lindsay for the now infamous reason of filming the beating to post it on MySpace and YouTube.

Another 22.5% of respondents favored a sentence from 15 years to life in prison, which means that 45.5% of the respondents felt that the offense was serious enough to warrant serious prison time and even death.

Victoria Lindsay is the 16-year-old cheerleader from Mulberry High School in Lakeland, Florida, who was lured to her then residence and allegedly beaten by six classmates and cheerleaders until she was unconscious. Then, once she regained consciousness, she was beaten some more.

Victoria suffered a concussion, vision and hearing loss, a chipped tooth and numerous abrasions from the incident.

The Polk County Sheriff's office released two videos of the beating. The first video was released not long after the beating incident, which occurred March 31, 2008. The second video was released about May 22nd.

20% of the poll's respondents favored a prison sentence of 5-15 years, while 23% favored 1-5 years behind bars.

9% thought that six months in jail was justified, and 3% favored probation.

Here are the exact results of the poll along with the wording used:
View Original Victoria Lindsay Beating Video
Second Victoria Lindsay Beating Video
Victoria Lindsay 911 Call Video
Victoria Lindsay MySpace Page Update
Middle School Copycat of Victoria Lindsay Beating - Video
US Marine Throws Puppy off Cliff to its death - video
Police Deputy Dumps Quadriplegic from Wheelchair - video
15 Philadelphia Police Beat and Stomp 3 Suspects - Video
New Born Baby Falls from Moving Train
US Tank Runs Over Iraqi Car but Doesn't Stop - Video

MADD Goes after Kiefer Sutherland

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is asking Ford Canada to fire Kiefer Sutherland as its celebrity spokesperson.

Sutherland is currently in jail serving a 48 day sentence after his third DUI conviction. Like so many other celebrities who have been living life on the edge, Sutherland has been working extra hard at playing life for all that it is worth.

So it is not surprising that MADD does not want Sutherland rewarded with a lucrative deal endorsing Ford vehicles to Canadians. MADD Canada president Margaret Miller has been urging Ford to chose a different celebrity to sell their vehicles.

MADD’s objections to Sutherland are, of course, his three DUIs and his infamous video from last Christmas where he attacked a Christmas tree in a hotel. He was reportedly a bit inebriated at the time of the tree attack according to media sources.

Sutherland was pulled over by police on September 25th after exiting a Hollywood party. At the time, he was on probation from a DUI in 2004. Plus, he was convicted of alcohol-related reckless driving back in 1993.

Andrew Murie, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, said that "literally, there's (sic) thousands of people out there that meet the moral standards of our society today that would love to have that kind of endorsement contract and they should be honored for their ethical behavior."

The video showing the Canadian actor attacking the tree is below.



However, Ford Canada is having none of it. Ford Canada spokesperson Gina Gellert confirmed that Ford has no intention of removing Sutherland, although she admitted that Ford will continue to monitor Sutherland’s behavior.

As for Sutherland, he seems to have adjusted well to prison life and spent his first day in the slammer folding laundry. "He's not happy to be here, but you can tell from his demeanor that he's sorry and takes responsibility for what's he's done," said Glendale City Jail spokesman John Balian.

Sutherland also received 60 months probation as part of his sentence, must pay a $510 fine, complete an 18-month alcohol-education class and attend weekly alcohol-therapy sessions for a six month period.