Civil versus Crimial Law

As it seems, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were obliged to file a case against Rudy Giuliani under Civil Law. Giuliani's crime was defamation. Unfortunately, there really wasn't a suitable option for getting justice in their case. Under Georgia law, defamation may rise to the level of a criminal offense; but then it is only treated as a misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of a $1000 fine and 1 year of jail time. That is the absolute maximum under criminal law. So they sued Giuliani under civil law and secured a ruling that award them nearly $150M. But while Freeman and Moss might receive more from this civil law suit than they could have ever hoped to achieve from a criminal case, the outcome is still inherently unjust.

(1) Giuliani won't pay anywhere close to $150M. He doesn't have that much money. And, with a possible filing for bankruptcy and appeals, there's no telling when - or even if - Freeman and Moss will see any of their awarded compensation.

(2) Giuliani won't spend even a day in prison as a consequence of the verdict in this trial.

(3) Even if Giuliani is completely bankrupted by this verdict, he will almost certainly continue to enjoy a lavish lifestyle... courtesy of friends... as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has demonstrated to be entirely possible.

So the divide between civil and criminal law seems to be somewhat arbitrary and ultimately inequitable. When someone is fined an astronomical sum of money in a civil case... a sum that clearly won't be paid... then there should be a formula for converting dollars to jail time. Perhaps the judge can set an upper limit on the total jail time (taking into account the injury done). And maybe the judge could set the rate of conversion... $1000 = 1 week, $1M = 1 year, or whatever. But somehow rulings should serve justice and not just be a farce.