School House Justice
Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 19:10
Posted by Marcel Strigberger
Mustafa Kadinci of Arac, Turkey beat up his wife. He was arrested and charged and came before a female judge. Her Honour must have been a former schoolteacher as she sentenced Mustafa to printing and distributing 1000 leaflets, reading, “I apologize to my wife for hitting her”.
While creative and novel, I think this type of sentence could set an awkward precedent as other criminals may want a similar deal. It will certainly make plea bargaining more interesting.
Can’t you just see a lawyer approaching the prosecutor and saying, “So my client robbed a bank. How about presenting joint submissions to the judge, asking that George write out 500 times, “I am a bad boy. I shall not rob banks anymore.” Wouldn’t that advance general deterrence?!?
Or perhaps defence counsel can ask the judge to order the guy to spend 30 minutes sitting in the corner. I’m sure this will have a huge impact in reducing repeat crime. Hey, you never know; while sitting in the corner the culprit could just run into Bubba.
And maybe this story can even inspire Bernard Madoff’s lawyer for the upcoming sentencing. Hey, what good would it do to send the man the 71 year old man to jail for 150 years as the prosecutor is seeking? Would that make his defrauded victims whole again? How about just making him go on CNN and say 1000 times, “ I made a boo boo. To err is human. I’m sorry and I mean it. It won’t happen again.” We all know he will never steal 50 billion dollars again.
Wouldn’t that take the administration of justice to a new level?!?
While creative and novel, I think this type of sentence could set an awkward precedent as other criminals may want a similar deal. It will certainly make plea bargaining more interesting.
Can’t you just see a lawyer approaching the prosecutor and saying, “So my client robbed a bank. How about presenting joint submissions to the judge, asking that George write out 500 times, “I am a bad boy. I shall not rob banks anymore.” Wouldn’t that advance general deterrence?!?
Or perhaps defence counsel can ask the judge to order the guy to spend 30 minutes sitting in the corner. I’m sure this will have a huge impact in reducing repeat crime. Hey, you never know; while sitting in the corner the culprit could just run into Bubba.
And maybe this story can even inspire Bernard Madoff’s lawyer for the upcoming sentencing. Hey, what good would it do to send the man the 71 year old man to jail for 150 years as the prosecutor is seeking? Would that make his defrauded victims whole again? How about just making him go on CNN and say 1000 times, “ I made a boo boo. To err is human. I’m sorry and I mean it. It won’t happen again.” We all know he will never steal 50 billion dollars again.
Wouldn’t that take the administration of justice to a new level?!?
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