John Grisham apologizes for remarks on child porn

John Grisham is taking back statements he made about child pornography and sex offenders.  In a recent interview with the UK's Telegraph, the lawyer and prolific author of books and Hollywood adaptations such as "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief" and "A Time to Kill" sparked outrage when he expressed his belief that some people who view child pornography online are receiving punishments that don't match the scale of the crime.

"We have prisons now filled with guys my age, 60-year-old white men, in prison, who've never harmed anybody (and) would never touch a child," Grisham said during a conversation about high U.S. prison rates. "But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons and went too far and got into child porn. ... They deserve some type of punishment, but 10 years in prison?

"There's so many of them now, sex offenders ... that they put them in the same prison, like they're a bunch of perverts or something."

"I have no sympathy for a real pedophile. But so many of these guys don't deserve harsh prison sentences.

Those comments and the nature in which Grisham discussed the very serious issue of child pornography incited a flood of hurt, disappointed and angry reactions from fans.

After the uproar began, Grisham issued an apology.

SOURCE