This is what passes for sanity in Texas...

A Texas teenager who was sentenced to eight years in prison for
graffiti and marijuana possession has had his sentence reduced under
new state legal guidelines.

Corpus Christi Judge Marisela Saldana sentenced 18-year-old Sebastian
Perez to eight years in prison last week for three counts of graffiti
and one count of marijuana possession, giving Perez the maximum
two-year sentence for each charge. Both crimes are felonies under
Texas law.

But a new law that took effect in the state this fall means judges can
no longer "stack" consecutive sentences in cases like Perez's, and on
Friday Perez had his sentence reduced to two years, according to
KIII-TV in Corpus Christi.

Perez broke down in sobs last week when a visibly irate Judge Saldana
scolded him for his six-month graffiti spree and handed down the
eight-year sentence.

"My question to you, Sebastian Perez, [is] why do you pick on these
other fine citizens of Corpus Christi, why don't you knock yourself
out spraying, tagging, marking on your girlfriend's house, her
mother's house, your friend's house, your mother's house," Saldana
said at the original sentencing. "Knock yourself out."

Deanna McQueen, the Corpus Christi police force's graffiti enforcer,
said the eight-year sentence was an appropriate deterrent to other
taggers, and declared, "It was a good day ... for the citizens of
Corpus Christi."

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported that the damage to private
property from Perez's tagging amounted to $7,300. Blogger Will Sherman
at Animal New York calculates that the cost to taxpayers of
incarcerating Perez for eight years in Texas would have amounted to
$140,000.

This is not the first case of taggers receiving lengthy sentences in
Corpus Christi. Last summer, 19-year-old Ralph Mirabal was sentenced
to three concurrent sentences of eight years for graffiti damage to
some 30 properties. Mirabal had reneged on a plea deal to join the
Army, and was given a lengthy sentence as a result.