I wish I could talk to you and discuss a particular client I had who was mortally depressed and who's only wish was to die. I would talk about this person who had gone to great lengths to obtain the necessary finance to undertake gender reassignment surgery. An horrific story in itself and only because this person was denied a job because of her gender (TS) and denied the love of her family and siblings. She was treated as "abnormal" and I first met her in the depths of despair in a mental health facility. Prior to that time, she had driven at great speed "sort of hoping" that she would become simply another speed related statistic, but her on-board desire to survive had allowed her to live. If she'd killed someone in her frenzied state, as a judge Rechtub, would you have sent her to an even worse life in gaol?

Aime, whether or not in this case the person was not a crossdresser it remains true that crossdressers are transgender and are often the targets of violence and ridicule. The work on Transgender Neurology and Intersex throws up increasing evidence for neurological bi-gender identity phenomena which predicts and explains the vastly more common Transgender forms of Genderqueer and Crossdressers etc.

From a human-rights perspective the Yogyakarta Principles cover the lot and any reforms need to address the entire of the Transgender and Intersex populations needs.

Aime
To Q1. The fine must equal the crime. I say to you, is it right to NOT send this person to gaol, but, to send another of sound mind and without a disorder?

2. No, I don't think this type of 'accident', and that's all it was, should be punnished with gaol and,I agree with RoBert on this one. I think jaol should only be there for 'hardened criminals' with little or no chance of rehabilitation.

I also am in favour of capital punishment, but only in the very strictest of circumstances. Not bassed on 'sufficient evidence' or on the findings of a jury.

My whole point is, and has always been, why do some go to gaol and others not.

We live in a world whereby we continually punish those who are capable of being punnished, but we tend to feel sorry for those who are at risk.

Where I come from, a crime is a crime. You do the crime, you do the time.

I think many will see this as a 'get out of gaol free card' and, there may well be some people in the professions making a killing out of keeping people with disorders/hangups out of gaol. A bit like a good lawyer. No accusations intended.

Have you watched a film called 'Primal Fear'. If not, I invite you to, it is great viewing. A hungry lawyer who will do anything for money and a guy with hang ups who.....

Ah rechtub. I see where you are going wrong now!

Ok lets view 1.
Same punishment for same crime. It's a great idea isn't it? It's one reason why i believe all fines should be in percentage of income/assets not a fixed number of dollers. Otherwise the rich suffer less from a fine than a poor person so the rich can afford to commit crimes more.

So lets view this as some simple hypotheticals.
Criminal A, cisgender, goes to jail for 3 years. During that time they get a little bad treatment because the jails are not well managed. They hate being in jail and when they get out they are bitter but try their best to go clean afterwards so as not to go back to jail.

Criminal B, Tansgender, goes to jail for 3 years. During that time because they are transgender and are put in with the cisgender male population they are constantly bashed and raped and bullied and are given lifelong psychological trauma.

Actually the last case i heard of involved an Aboriginal Transgender woman put in the male prison on a minor drug offence and they were DEAD IN 6 DAYS! She got punished far more than other prisoners put in for minor drug offences, she got indirect capital punishment for being transgender!

Criminal B has been punished more than a million times more than Criminal A. If however criminal B went to a jail that was equipped for Transgender people with a seperate transgender population where they were not in personal isolation then criminal B would be punished the same as criminal A. Where there is no such fair option than there is no way that Criminal B can be punished the same as Criminal A! Which is why B couldn't be sent to jail. Make sense now rechtub?

Of course punishment is utterly and totally useless for the majority of brain-injured prisoners anyway as they aren't going to be scared out of criminal acts by the threat of prison cause the impulse control part of their brain is damaged so it will never ever do any good and imprisonment will help them become worse criminals. So we need to replace most prisons with rehabilitation for brain injury centres to teach them how to have self control by learning how to use other parts of their brain to handle self control. It's the only sane answer and no-one wants to admit that most even violent criminals are so because of brain damage from accidents football and sport injuries or assaults!

Rechtub, you said...."My whole point is, and has always been, why do some go to gaol and others not."

The answer is quite clear. In this particular case, the judge determined that the defendant would be subjected to unspeakable horrors if given a custodial sentence. The judgement appeared to be based on the fact that the person concerned had a genetic disorder that made that person 'different' to the general run-of-the-mill male 21 year old.

Ideally, there would be special institutions for such people where they could serve their time in relative safety, but because of the generally low incidence of these situations, the State has most likely determined, based on the availability of finances, that building or providing such a place is too expensive and costly to run and therefore, without such a special institution, the only place for that person is living in the knowledge that one slip-up means gaol will be a very real option.

I regret that a young girl lost her life and having been through the untimely death of my partner who also died in an MVA, my heart goes out to her family, but just because her friend made a tragic mistake on a dirt road doesn't give any of us the right to demand justice of the most terrible kind.