The lawyer of Bruce Wayne Ivey—one of the several hundred people charged with breaching the capitol on January 6 last year—told a judge his client did what he did because he "genuinely believed" that there was a "global secret state that was plotting to kill off the majority of the human population."
His attorney acknowledged Ivey was prone to "conspiratorial thinking" and used it in his defense. Prosecutors are lowering the penalties for defendants who plead guilty.
Because he pled guilty to his charge—one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol—Ivey was sentenced three years of probation, which includes 60 days of house arrest and a $500 fine. He was sentenced by US District Judge Christopher Cooper.
Judge Cooper also ordered Ivey to agree to regular drug testing and mental-health treatment.
People weren't very sympathetic about the criminal's "defense."
One person asked:
"Can we say conspiracy theories are creating unstable behaviors in gullible people?"
Some are upset with the sentencing, feeling as though the judge let Ivey off too easy.
One person tweeted using the hashtag #slaponthewrist.
"Another Capital rioter has been sentenced to probation...... #Slaponthewrist"
"Which confirms what I already knew: we have a broken justice system!"
And another, also upset tweeted:
"[W]e are probably the only country in the world where a person trying to overthrow a legally chosen federal government gets a slap on the wrist."
"In any other place an attempted coup d'état would've resulted at least in a prison sentence."
Video footage from the Capitol building showed Ivey, one of the first people to break into the building, holding a stolen police shield and smashing a window with it.
He then entered the building through the broken window. Ivey said he spent months recovering from being crushed in a door frame by the mob that surged inside the building.
Ivey joins a group of 800 being prosecuted in connection with the attack on the capitol.
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