Only in America..
But really, this is disgusting. I think the guy deserved jail, sure. But you don't set people up because of what you think they deserve. Once you cross over that line, the boundaries of the justice system become meaningless. Justice then becomes simply about fulfilling the adgenda of the prosecuters, not the rights of the accused.
I disagreed with the system in Minority Report, but even it was far more fair than this. At least then, they were *real* crimes that had a 99.999% chance of happening, and there was a *real* victim that had to be saved. People who compare this to attempted murder or robbing a bank are completely missing the point. There was no victim here, nothing was about to take place, nobody was saved, this was a pre-emptive conviction, set up by the police (entrapment), to stop him doing what *might* happen sometime in the future. I *will* commit crimes sometime in my life, so technically they have even more reason to lock me up than him. Now do you see the problem?
Where was the failing here, then? Primarily, this guy went to jail because he got lumbered with a useless public laywer, the secondary reason was an uneducated redneck jury who have a knee-jerk reaction to the word pedophile, and fourth, the judge for his sentencing, and last but not least, all the other morons in the justice system which let this case take place at all.