Dear Communicat,

Each court case should be judged individually,
weighing all the mitigating circumstances.
I'm not familiar with this particular case,
but the question that needs to be asked here
is, why was the judge so lenient? Were there
any mitigating circumstances that influenced
the judge's decision?

Did the defendant actually mean to kill the man?
Was it a premeditated crime of murder?

It's difficult to give you an answer, not knowing
anything about the case, and the circumstances
involved.

The law is not a case of "one size fits all."

Many judges have exceptional discretion in determining
the severity of the sentence, and there has always
been strong evidence that the race and social class
of the offender influence judicial decisions.

For example, a "higher-status" offender may be
given a lighter sentence because the judge feels
that he's "already suffered" through damage to
his reputation and perhaps loss of employment,
finances, et cetera. That's why for example about
60 percent of white-collar criminals receive no
jail terms, and of those who do, serve one year
or less.

In part, this discrepancy reflects the greater public
fear of, and outrage at crimes that are physically directed
towards individuals (such as the crime in this thread).
But this also reflects the greater ability of high-status
people to evade the full impact of the law.

Justice wears a blindfold for a reason ...

I hoped I was being careful not to comment on the rights or wrongs of the individual case as such, rather I wanted to raise the issue of whether there are groups (as opposed to individuals) who deserve special consideration or whether (as pointed out by others) we should all be equal under the law - and where do human rights/ discrimination fit into this?
Manslaughter is usually seen as an action or actions unintended to cause death and murder as an action or actions intended to cause death - but there are also degrees of both. e.g. murder in self defence or the defence of others and manslaughter through intentional physical violence are two different issues for which the defences raised would have to be very different. They would (or should) relate to the individual circumstances, not whether the defendant belonged to a group. In the case in question the membership of a group came into consideration when sentencing the individual.
I probably have not made myself very clear!

You really don't understand the complexities of this at all, do you Gibo. You really don't understand why this makes problems.

The issue is, who chooses which groups get special status?

You?

Allow me to present - "Gibo's greatest hits: an 'Old Testament' to hypocrisy."

Part one features the dangers of muppets, gay people, the Labor party, gay people, the Chinese, gay people, masturbators, gay people, witches and gay people.

---

"If we havent got a proper system to look after special groups then we have to be more lenient... we have overlooked the Aborigines... Special groups would also include the Jewish people."

"AIDS is here to stay as long as people want to be gay or bi. Gods Creation, man, was Created to be with woman."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1045#18591

"Its a wise society that takes witchcraft seriously."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1036#18318

"The reality is Labor people are not Godly Bible people; and do not have much heart for folk beyond their own party beliefs."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=987#18681

"I cant ever condone homosexuality, not for anyone. I dont believe homosexuals are born that way. They may be affected by a spirit power as part of a curse that goes down the family line because of the lines' earlier sins."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1099#19584

"The Chinese cant be trusted StG. Working with them would only benefit their take-over of us folk."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1445#26675

"Many masturbaters have "the voice in the head' problem and live on psychiatric medication. Many gays will have a similar problem." http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1099#19584

"For many years he maintained the status quo of providing education through Sesame Street then light entertainment through the Muppets. Then the change began. Then came the move over to witchcraft and evil. The Dark Crystal, then Labyrinth (one of the most bizarre films there ever was)... then The Story Teller."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1175#20838

"Civil unions need to be resisted at ALL times for the sake of the nation. With them will eventually come the adoption rights and that will lead homosexual couples into molesting their adopted childen...for this is what is in the heart."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6997#106031

Cont'd.

There is no doubt in WA the courts are a lot more lenient on aboriginals than others.In fact many times the Police don't show up for long periods when called to sort out domestic violence. My son's girlfriend witnessed a terrible flogging a few weeks ago. The Police took forever to show up. I personally caught kids vandalising and breaking into a public school. I and others knew the offenders. We were told that their was not enough evidence to convict these kids. This was outright wrong. I will no longer go out of my way to ring the Police.

Even without going into the why's and why nots people are totally blinded if they think aboriginals are treated by the law the same as white people. Many of them don't even recognize white mans and Asians and African man's law. Our gaols in WA are full of aboriginals. The proportion of law breaking is much higher than aboriginals than rest of the population. This will continue as long as we have people in Canberra who choose to believe lies about this 'peaceful' culture that existed before white man arrived. They have obviously never experienced this culture first hand. Thankfully some like Noel Pearson understand the problems and has the guts to do something about it.

Part two of our fascinating foray into hypocrisy continues.

In this spectacular finish we witness the evils of Harry Potter, gay people, Islam, people who hate gay people, Hugh Hefner, demonic people, people people, Buddha, Wiccans, Indonesia, Americans, the internet, pondering, gay people, Confucious, NASA and Catholics.

"The great global plan of Islam includes stirring up as much dissension wherever they can."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1429#26413

"I feel sorry for gay folk. They'll go underground again.
They've worked hard for a great golden age when everyone would accept them ... but it's not going to be so."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6997#106150

"How could I possibly write about Harry Potter and his witchcraft practices if I didnt have first hand knowledge of the material and what the kids were getting sucked into... Buddha, Allah, Confucious, wicca, new age, are demon distractions from God and Jesus."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1036#18344

"Like Indonesia having her spies here to plot to take us over as SOUTH IRIAN and China having her spies here to take us over as NEW SOUTH CHINA, the Vatican has her spies all over the place quietly pushing One World Church doctrine and gathering info on true Christian believers."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=7684#119753

"Got to disagree with your pro-porners. I remember the 50's as a kid before Hugh Hefners magazine legacy etc began to warp the minds of youth en masse."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1432#26686

"The four things God has against America, as revealed in Words of Knowledge to christian prophets, are its abortion, its pornography, its greed/selfishness and its neglect of its poor. NASA thinking stands as an abomination in those last two areas.
"Actually I see the net as a great modern evil with its bombmakers, and its witchcraft folk and its over 200 million sex sites each one encouraging the sex criminal into bolder and bolder acts of darkness."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1042#18852

My personal favourite:

"I like being a fundamentalist TRTL. Its secure. I have Gods Word so I dont need to ponder."
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1179#20955

Which proves fundamentalism is sanctioned ignorance. So, to the grand finale of hypocrisy, posted just today:

... wait for it.

"Until GY does filter the hate more...Im absent from OLO."

It would be wonderful if the level of discussion here on this topic was of high quality that it attracted the attention of people who had real world experience and knowledge to contribute. What a waste of time and effort.