Felon Banished from San Francisco

For a San Franciscan, there is one punishment possibly worse than death, and that would be banishment.

The torture of having to look longingly from the East Bay shore at your home town would be heartbreaking.

But that's just what convicted felon Deandre Watson will have to do, at least for the next few years and barring a pass from his parole officer, reports the San Francisco Weekly.

Watson entered into a plea agreement, having plead guilty to the crime of threatening a pregnant woman at gunpoint and stealing her car.

In the ruling on the conditions of his supervised release after three years in prison, Superior Court Judge William Alsup hoped that Watson would make new, less criminal friends in another town such as Oakland or San Jose -- an extra turn of the knife into the heartbreak of a hometown San Francisco loyalist.

Scott Sugarman, Watson's lawyer, petitioned to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that condition, but the appeal was denied.

It's rough justice, but possibly for the best.

"You know, I do see people in your very position that come back in here four or five years later and they've got an honest job," said Alsup at the sentencing hearing last year. "That's what I want to see happen for you."

Jackson West will never to commit any crime that would get him legally banished, promise.