
 
 
 
 Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins in September gave defendants in Perry County an interesting choice: give blood in lieu of fines, pay up or go to jail, The New York Times reported Monday. 
 
 "For your consideration, there's a blood drive outside," The Times quoted him as saying. "If you don't have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood." 
 
 "For those who had no money or did not want to give blood, the judge concluded: "The sheriff has enough handcuffs." 
 
 In an audio recording obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a worker at the blood drive tells one defendant he is doing the right thing by giving by blood. 
 
 "Well, and I normally do," he replies. "But, I don't like being told I have to or I'm going to jail." 
 
 "I thought everybody was joking when he said that," the woman working the drive then said. 
 
 In another recording, a blood donation ends with the donor telling a staffer: "Don't thank me, thank the judge." 
 
 The Times reported Wiggins declined to comment. The SPLC filed an ethics complaint against Wiggins for an alleged "violation of bodily integrity," the report states. 
 
 "People who couldn't pay their court debt with cash literally paid with their blood," said Sara Zampierin, SPLC staff attorney. "This is a shocking disregard for not only judicial ethics but for the constitutional rights of defendants." 
 
 Judge Wiggins Complaint 
 
 This isn't Wiggins' first brush with controversy. 
 
 In 2009, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary publicly reprimanded Wiggins and ordered him to work without pay for 90 days for not recusing himself in a voter fraud investigation involving three of his relatives. 
 
 Gov. Robert Bentley in 2014 removed Wiggins from the Alabama State University board of trustees for conflict-of-interest violations. 
 
 "Out of deep concern for the future of ASU, the student body, its faculty, its accreditation and financial standing, and by the authority vested in me as governor of the state of Alabama, you are hereby removed," Bentley wrote. 
 
 Wiggins later requested Bentley rescind his letter of removal and provide for a hearing before the ASU Board of Trustees in accordance with its bylaws. 
 
 Calling the allegations against him "false and baseless," he alleged Bentley had denied him due process and violated the standards of the university's accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. 
 
 "If you are unwilling to withdraw and rescind your letter, I am duty bound as a trustee to report your conduct to SACSCOC," Wiggins wrote. 
 
 He was not reinstated. ||||| Ajoutée le 19 oct. 2015 
 
 In a recording made on September 17, 2015, Alabama Circuit Court Judge Marvin Wiggins can be heard offering defendants the option to either give blood to pay off court debt or go to jail. Virtually every case included fees indigent defendants had been charged to recoup money for their court-appointed counsel. 
 
 
 
 The SPLC filed a judicial ethics complaint charging that the circuit judge violated the U.S. and Alabama Constitutions, and the rights of indigent defendants. 
 
 
 
 Learn more: https://www.splcenter.org
– Last month, an Alabama judge gave a courtroom full of offenders a choice: donate blood or go to jail, the New York Times reports. “For your consideration, there’s a blood drive outside," Judge Marvin Wiggins told the offenders, who were there because they owed fees and fines. "If you don’t have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood.” The offenders were promised they would then not be sent to jail, plus they'd get a $100 credit toward what they owed. “I don’t know whether it’s legal or not," one lawyer who was present tells the Times. "I don’t know if that violates half the Constitution." Legal and health experts are more certain, calling the judge's ultimatum "improper" and "wrong in about 3,000 ways." “You’re basically sentencing someone to an invasive procedure that doesn’t benefit them," a medical ethics professor says. Dozens of offenders ended up donating blood. The Birmingham News reports a recording of the blood drive catches them saying things like, "I don't like being told I have to or I'm going to jail," and, "Don't thank me, thank the judge." The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint against Wiggins Monday. It's not the first against him. He was reprimanded in 2009 for not recusing himself from a case involving his relatives, and he was removed from the Alabama State University board of trustees over a conflict of interest in 2014. According to the Times, the blood bank eventually threw out most of the blood collected following a complaint. And the SPLC claims none of the offenders whose claims they've reviewed actually got the promised $100 credit.