No one has ever gone to prison for BS reasons, or been falsely accused. How can you ever trust anyone who ever did anything wrong in their life? If you've done something wrong you're obviously a bad person forever. <sarcasm>

Edit: As an aside, it is very likely you have committed a crime punishable by jail time and not been caught/prosecuted, at least once in your life (with or without you knowing it).

Exactly. I know someone who received a ticket for a broken tail light. He forgot to pay it and ended up going to jail for 8 months! 8 months! For a broken tail light!

I would have expected an additional penalty or at most a week in jail, which even then I would consider that extreme.

Was that 8 month sentence with a lawyer?

No, it wans't. He (I suppose wrongly) assumed that he didn't need one since it was such a minor thing. No body expected that to happen.

As far as I can tell, has family name was kind of known in the area for being trouble makers. He, himself, had never been in trouble with the law, but he had the unfortunate last name of being associated with some family members that did.

I suspect it was a "teach you a lesson" sort of thing.

Not surprisingly, he did eventually become a trouble maker and is in jail again. When he was in jail for the taillight, he was quite upset about it. He's okay with the fact that he's in jail now because he knows he screwed up and he feels like he deserves it.

I will add that the lesson that I learned from that is always get a lawyer, no matter how small the crime.

Was he from Texas?

Georgia, actually.

He shouldn't have to go on an apology tour to ask questions. He's already been judged by the courts. You stay out of it.