throw the book at someone

“The point is to tell the agencies not to throw the book at someone acting in good faith,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal thinking about the policy.

We encourage the authorities to throw the book at someone acting stupidly with a deadly weapon, because stupid people with deadly weapons are precisely how innocent people get hurt.

The charges against Schulte are more varied—and less exclusively computer-based—than those brought against Swartz, but they tell a similar story about how easily charges can be piled on top of each other when government officials really want to throw the book at someone.

"Sentencing for any kind of computer related crimes also needs to be brought into line with reality and the bounds of justice, companies tend to inflate their estimates of damages and juries hear 'millions of dollars in damages' and rush to throw the book at someone for exploiting ridiculously lax security and changing a webpage."