Adjunct Professor Joel Cohen wrote an article featured in New York Law Journal on unique approaches to sentencing to promote “general deterrence”.
Shuler’s attorney, Terrence Connors, asked for a probation sentence requiring Shuler to appear before students and tell them what he did: “He just may be the person who stops some business student or one law student from taking a path that should not be travelled,” counsel told the court. And Judge Caproni not only agreed, it had been precisely what she planned to do (complimenting Connors for having done his homework by looking at other sentences Judge Caproni had meted out: “Mr. Connors obviously had a gremlin in my computer.”). So, at least one-third of Shuler’s community service “should be spent talking to college students, or business groups, or law students about business ethics and the risks of failing to adhere to principles of integrity and honesty when dealing with the government.” Judge Caproni told Shuler to seek out classes and clubs to talk to, which is a better way to use his time than working in a soup kitchen: “I want you to be the guy out there who is talking about the importance of business integrity.”
And so Shuler will presumably tell students exactly what he did, exactly what the potential consequences for doing it were, and exactly why he became a sacrificial lamb, now exposed to public obloquy, so that still-impressionable students don’t do the same stupid, jail-worthy things. Just imagine, students getting a dose of what could possibly happen to them, from someone who it has already happened to and only “escaped” (after indictment, cooperation, shaming publicity and trial) by the skin of his teeth.