Ohio judge and "creative sentencer" Michael Cicconetti sentenced a 25 year-old Michelle M. Murray to spend the night in the woods with no food or camping gear after she abandoned 35 kittens in a park in 2005. Nine of the kittens died and many were found in ill-health.
Cicconetti offered Murray several sentencing options. She was given a choice between 90 days in jail for domestic animal abandonment, or 14 days in jail, 15 days under house arrest, or a $3,200 donation to the Humane Society a $500 donation to the park rangers who found the kittens and one night alone in the woods.
Murray chose the woods, and served her time in November. Originally, her sentence stipulated that she could have no food, reading material, and only the clothes she wore to keep warm, but due to cold temperatures Cicconetti allowed her to build a fire.
