rambold clem.jpg

Stacey Rambold, left, in a Billings, Mont., Police photo. Austin Clem, right in an Athens, Ala., Police photo.

I n a case similar to an ongoing Limestone County, Ala., controversy, Montana prosecutors are fighting to put a former teacher back in jail, saying the 31-day sentence he served was too light for his rape conviction.

In both the Montana and Limestone County cases, the defendants were convicted by juries of raping girls when they were 14 years old.

In the Limestone County case, Austin Smith Clem, 25, was convicted on one count of first-degree rape and two counts of second-degree rape for the rape of a neighbor when she was 14 and again at age 18. He received no jail time but was sentenced to two years in a community corrections program and six years' probation. The sentence received national media attention and, after prosecutors filed an appeal, Circuit Court Judge Jimmy Woodroof agreed Tuesday to resentence. No resentencing date has been set.

In that case, the victim, Courtney Andrews, now 20, revealed her identity to the media so she could protest the sentence.

In the Montana case, Stacey Dean Rambold, 47, of Billings was sentenced in August and released from prison on probation after a month, according to a report on CNN.com. He will serve 14 years' probation.

The judge, G. Todd Baugh, said at the time the teen victim "seemed older than her chronological age." The victim took her own life before the trial began.

On Friday, prosecutors filed an appeal questioning the legality of Rambold's sentence, saying it did not meet the state's mandatory minimum sentence.

Baugh has since said he made a mistake and said his previous comments "didn't come out correct," CNN reports. The judge said he wasn't aware of a minimum sentence requirement of two years in prison.