[OT] Enron Verdicts

wrote in
:

I agree with you in principle. On the other hand, when a convicted
child raper goes to prison, I can't say I feel too sad for him knowing
what's going to happen. I know, it's not rational and it's not very
civilized, either. But there is emotional satisfaction in that. Well,
at least I feel that way when such a person is convicted and sentenced
on a TV cop show.


That's it exactly. Not rational, not kind, but certainly satisfying. At
least, in theory.

Chak

--
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
--Jeannette Rankin

Nomen Nescio wrote in
:

If you'd ever looked down the barrel of a gun held by some twitchy
lowlife, babbling ghetto speak, and demanding your wallet,

I have. Twice.

then
you might realize that having the value of your stock portfolio go
down is a rather insignificant event by comparison.

Please don't dismiss people losing their life savings and their pensions
as 'having the value of your stock portfolio go down'. It's not
insignificant, not even by comparison.

The day that Ken Lay breaks into a house, rapes and beats a woman
and her 13 year old daughter, is the day that life in max-security
will be appropriate.

This seems a specious argument to me. Not every one in maximum-security
has injured someone. And Lay isn't facing life.

Chak


--
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
--Jeannette Rankin

wrote:

I agree with you in principle. On the other hand, when a convicted child
raper goes to prison, I can't say I feel too sad for him knowing what's
going to happen. I know, it's not rational and it's not very civilized,
either. But there is emotional satisfaction in that.

Which is why neither victims of crime, nor the general public,
nor Congress, with it's natural bias toward the public's
emotions, should have any input whatsoever into the "penalty
phase" of criminal justice.

The state has no more right to punish any person *without
reason* than you or I do. Its right to punish is only its right
to act in the public interest, and any treatment of convicted
criminals which cannot be shown to be clearly in the public
interest is illegal. But if punishment is to be *within
reason*, then it must be determined by reason, and not by
emotion. Therefore, any who have an emotional reaction to the
crime should be carefully excluded from such deliberation.
--

Wayne M.