Killing out of curiosity
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Gary Kirkham wrote:
Two teenage girls in Western Australia have been sentenced to life in prison for killing a friend to see whether they would feel remorse at the deed. Is that really why they were sentenced to life in prison? :rolleyes:
I think you are either jesting or reading it wrong - the motive for the killing was "to see whether they would feel remorse at the deed" The reason for the sentence was that they committed murder, regardless of their motive...
I see how you can read it that way, but the piece didn't say what the motive was, in fact here is a cite from the article: "Their lawyers said experts were baffled as to the motivation behind the attack." I could read the following as saying, "We decided to kill her and discussed whether or not we would feel remorse afterward." They had been discussing how neither would feel bad about committing murder when they decided to kill Davis, who was sleeping in another room, a court heard in April.
Gary Kirkham Forever Forgiven and Alive in the Spirit He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot Me blog, You read
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Gary Kirkham wrote:
Is that really why they were sentenced to life in prison? :rolleyes:
Indeed! I always get puzzled when people are exmained for mental insanity after they've killed someone. Aren't overyone that kills another person, other than in self defense, mentally ill in some way and how can anyone claim otherwise? :~ The idea that a murderer is considered mentally healthy is somewhat foreign to me.
"It's supposed to be hard, otherwise anybody could do it!" - selfquote
"High speed never compensates for wrong direction!" - unknownRoger Stoltz wrote:
I always get puzzled when people are exmained for mental insanity after they've killed someone.
Well, such a subject is often abused, it is a huge loophole of the system since many of the disorders overlap. The question comes down to a physical/chemical/biological disorder that would offer qualifications that the person was even capable of making independant decisions of the disorder. Some of this comes from if the disorder is treatable. If the disorder is not treatable, then the issue is still the same, get them out of the public. A prime example is Borderline personality disorder which is now treatable, but also often misdiagnosed. This could now be reclassified as a chemical disorder of the brain, except that it shares so many issues with other personality disorders making it difficult to tell the difference. Anti-social personality disorder has no treatment that I know of, nor does Narcissism. Anti-social (not be confused with asocial as most people do), is where a person deliberately ignores law and order. A narcissist differs from Antisocial definition from a very specific point: A narcissist is the center of his/her universe, all things he believes are true, all things he does is right - the right or wrong of another person is only determined by examination by comparison to self. A narcissist is your most severe criminal because they can never do wrong. Nothing that they do can ever be wrong, but anything you do that is different from them is wrong. It is the ultimate freeing mentality because it is self-supported fallacy of logic: because I am right, all that I do is right. Schizophrenia, which is often confused with multiple personality disorder, is characterized by illusions auditory or perceptual that constantly intertwine with reality. There is not possible way to know what is real and what is not. Schizophrenia is a neurobiological illness and sometimes treatable. If you can get rid of the constan hallucinations the person can learn as any other person to deal with reality. However, given that these things exist, many people attempt to force a diagnosis to one of several treatable illnesses (and then there is the temporary insanity bit which gets even more grey). Knowing a way out of the system often presents a path to be attempted.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese
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dan neely wrote:
a sentence of 15 years to life, as opposed to life without the possibility of parole.
I understand the legality of the sentence, I don't agree with the concept. For a teenager, the difference between 15 years and a life sentence is huge.
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." - Thomas Jefferson
I can't speak for parole rules in AU, but in the US you have to be seen as not a threat and remorseful for your actions. IOW if they turn their life around they can get out while still reasonably young and have a chance at living something approaching a normal life again. If they continue to act like scum they get to keep rotting. IMO it's a perfectly reasonable solution.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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El Corazon wrote:
This is the primary reason for...
Of course, but when it comes to murder I like my punishments a little more "cut and dried" than "15 to life". Rehabilitation is a joke. IMO its all about punishment and keeping another fiend off the streets.
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." - Thomas Jefferson
Mike Mullikin wrote:
IMO its all about punishment
There can be no punishment for murder, how do you punish for that? It is unquestionably the most severe crime, no justice can ever be found, and no amount of remorse can make up for the loss, therefore it can never be punished. However, punishment usually implies rehabilitation. Punishment is not punishment unless there is an "after;" Punishment declairs that the person will feel the pain for the crime he/she has done, which implies that you are trying to make a change in the person. Since you can never have a fitting punishment the question becomes: feed and house them for life, attempt to rehabilitate and cut your costs, or cut your costs early and make it capital. The latter-most is usually forbidden for teens.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)