By C1 Staff
TRENTON — Two judges found that an inmate’s wedding ring is not a weapon, even though the inmate threw the ring at a correctional officer.
The Courier-Post reports that a two-judge panel overturned a guilty ruling in the case of inmate Gerald Lovelace.
Lovelace was wearing a ring after a visit with his wife, which he wasn’t allowed to have. When a correctional officer asked him to remove the ring and turn it over to her, Lovelace responded by throwing the ring at her instead.
He was charged with assault with a weapon and found guilty by a hearing officer five days later.
He was placed in administrative segregation for 90 days, followed by 15 days of detention. He also received a 60-day suspension of privileges and lost 60 days of commutation time.
His ring was seized by prison officials.
State law defines a weapon as “anything readily capable of lethal use or of inflicting serious bodily harm,” and the judges found that the ring doesn’t fall under that category.
“While there may be some rare and extraordinary circumstance in which a wedding band is capable of being converted into a weapon, such an object is not readily capable of lethal use or of inflicting serious bodily injury,” they wrote in their ruling.
Lovelace is currently serving a five-year sentence for a February 2011 weapons offense.