A short examination of inequity's of the law.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Some Time ago I was asked to preside over a case where a male had been charged with interfering with twenty three, mentally disabled children, I refused due to the conditions set on the trial. I wanted to hear each case individually. My thoughts were that due to the restriction placed on me by the law, I could only sentence for a maximum of two years on the one charge. However if each case was heard separately, I could sentence each offence separately. The Justice who eventually heard and sentenced the offender, handed down a sentence of three months jail, wholly suspended with a two-year bond to be of good behaviour.
Last week, in a similar case, a man was tried for a similar charge. A case where, over a period of years, four of his victims had died by their own hand. He was sentenced to 2 years jail, with eligibility for parole after six months. No attempt was made to make the offender answer for the deaths of his victims, and in neither case were the victim’s circumstances considered, during the trial or the sentencing procedure.
A Drug Dealer and importer is charged with the possession and distribution of drugs, namely Heroin. After a lengthy trial, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment. This is despite the proven fact that at least seven of his clients had died of an overdose, using the drugs that he sold. The legal argument being that the deceased had used the drugs by choice, that no one had forced the drugs onto them, and therefore their deaths were considered to be “Death by Misadventure”. Yet, if I, or any one else supplied or administered a poisonous substance to another, even as a "Mercy Killing or Euthanasia", we would be arrested and charged with murder. Why not the Pusher.
A woman, on being beaten by her faithless Husband, cracks and picks up a gun. In a fit of uncontrollable rage, she shoots him dead. Despite the evidence of no real premeditation, years of abuse to her and the children, psychiatric evidence that she was of diminished responsibility when she committed the crime and that she would be unlikely to re offend, she is sentenced to life imprisonment In some countries she would be sentenced to death, and eventually executed.
Did she receive “Justice?” or was she a victim of Revenge. The revenge that society demands of a killer, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the crime.
The system of justice would appear to be inequitable where offences involving death are concerned. Drug Dealers by the very nature of their trade, Know that the possibility is, at least one of their clients will die of an overdose. I would suggest that the dealer is as guilty of murder as the killer who, while in the commission of a hold up, kills a shopkeeper. Both crimes are premeditated, both assailants were armed, one with a gun, the other with a lethal substance. Both knew that, the probability that death will occur is high, both killed, one directly, one by proxy. Yet they are both treated differently by the court system.
The Paedophile, whose victims, through guilt and shame had committed suicide, is as guilty of murder as the Gunman and the Pusher, yet he is treated more leniently, receiving a relatively light sentence. By definition he has contributed to the death of his victims, he has contributed to the corruption of the descendants of some of his victims, and maybe deaths by suicide of those descendants. Therefore, are they not equally guilty of murder? The paedophile is more likely to re-offend than say the spontaneous murderer, because like the Gunman and the Pusher, the recidivism rate is as high as ninety percent. But we treat their crimes as misdemeanours, releasing them back on the streets after only a short time in jail, to re-offend, destroying other lives.
We take the position, “Don’t worry, we’ll catch them again”. But when we do, how many more lives will be ruined, how many more deaths have to occur? The system should consider that there should never be an “Again”. The penalty for these offences should be in line with the life sentence given to the abused wife. Even if it cannot be proven that, the Pusher and the Paedophile, contributed to the death their victims, there should be an assumption of guilt. The Law of “Reverse Onus” should be applied, forcing them to prove that they have not committed murder.