I'm sure most of us have seen the news coverage of this.
2 gay men minding thier buisseness in the middle of london and 3 absolute pieces of shit kick one of them to death.
The sentance? 7 years!! WTF is going on in this bloody country?
Something really needs to be done about the judges in this country, they seem to be totally out of touch and utterly incompodent at thier job.
The dead mans sister and partner were on the tv this morning, and my heart went out to them.
I don't know about training - but sentencing needs to be taken out of their hands. They can make sure the rules in the court are followed - but sentencing should be on a fixed chart.
Property theft or damage - money or work-time equivalent to the loss. Physical harm - equivalent harm is done back. Deliberate or reckless death - death. Being drunk or drugged - no defence. Doing it with a car - no defence. Being mentally incapable is a different matter, but no-one has suggested that in this case.
In this case 7 years? Turning into 3 in reality. The message - go ahead, kill people. It will cost you maybe 3 years of your worthless life and you'll probably get a GCSE out of it. Seriously - why do I bother being law abiding?
So to simplify ...
Same number of deaths = same sentence ???
Set tariffs would lead to just as many if not more ridiculous sentences...as I was told recently circumstance is everything...and for every stupid sentence that receives publicity there are hundreds of perfectly reasonable ones that don't. A Judge has to do just that, judge the circumstances of both the crime and the criminal sometimes they may get it wrong,often they get it right and occasionally we aren't given enough information to be able to say which is which
There are always going to be cock ups when humans are involved in a proses, but I like humans being involved in that proses, for the same reason I like police men to run speed traps and not machines.
There's no answer to that is there Foxy? if we remove compassion,understanding,acceptance of our own frail weak humanity out of any process of justice you're right...I'd rather we were weak human and fallible
To be honest, I tend to have a pretty black and white view, but in the real world would always vote for the humanist approach. One thing I hate though, is harm done while drunk, drugged or driving being treated more softly than when these factors are not involved.
I'm not sure if I got this right, but I'm sure I heard the tale end of a news item this morning on SkyNews that the Probation Service can actually direct the Judge on what sentence to award. If the Judge ignores their "advice", it is grounds for appeal against sentence.
If that is the case, why have Judges at all?
I believe judges base sentences for the majority of crimes on published sentencing guidelines, which are widely discussed and agreed by those closely involved in the criminal justice system.
They are quite comprehensive.
However, this young person was convicted of manslaughter for which there are few guidelines precisely because the offence covers a multitude of scenarios. The sentence is consistent with others handed out for the similar offences.
Now I happen to think if you attack somebody and they die you should be tried for murder because that was a risk you took when you decided to attack them. It would seem that society doesn't agree with me.
I like the US idea - if someone dies during the commission of a federal offence, the offender is charged with murder. So if you rob a bank, and a teller has a heart attack, you go down for murder as well as bank robbery.
