Wesley Snipes Spends First Night in Prison of Three Year Sentence

Multimillionaire movie star, Wesley Snipes, spends his first night in prison of a three year sentence beginning December 9, 2010. Snipes has been trying to appeal his conviction, but the judge said that he received a fair trial.

Wesley Snipes will be spending his three year prison sentence in a prison camp in Pennsylvania. It is a minimum security prison camp without a fence around the perimeter. This Federal prison is not like most prisons with high security. Inmates have their own cells or share with only one other prisoner. All inmates are non-violent offenders. Inmates watch movies rated G, PG or PG-13, three days per week. Movies rated R, NC-17 or X are not permitted at this facility.

At least Snipes will get to shower each day and he can work if he chooses to in the kitchen, laundry room or other facility on the prison grounds.

Snipes tried to convince the court that he was just naive in his following of a group that does not believe in federal taxes. Snipes was a due paying member of the group for more than a decade during which time Snipes made millions of dollars as a top paying Hollywood actor.

While Snipes was appearing in move such as "Blade", "Blade: ll", "Blade: Trinity", "White Men Can't Jump", "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar", and "Demolition Man," while earning more than $13.5 million dollars, but then felt that it was unfair to pay taxes on those earnings.

Wesley Snipes believed that the federal government did not have the legal right to collect taxes. Did he think it was voluntary or did he think that the federal government can provide services and military protection to our country without money?

The McKean Federal Prison administrators say that Wesley Snipes will not receive any special treatment, but it seems as though he already has just by being allowed to spend his sentence at this facility. It is unknown if Snipes will be able to get out early for good behavior or other reasons. He may have to complete his entire three year sentence.

Snipes, 48, has been a movie actor for more than 25 years. He has been married twice and has five children. He lives part of the time in South Korea, his self proclaimed second home. Snipes converted to Islam (from Christianity) in 1978 but it is not known if he practices the religion.

Wesley Snipes will most likely spend the next 1,095 nights in Federal prison unless his appeal to the Supreme Court is upheld which is highly unlikely.

Source:

Fox News 12/9/10
Wikipedia