Punishment Fitting The Crime?
It never ceases to amaze, confound and sicken to realize the depths of depravity that too many living among us are capable of descending to. Newspapers are replete with the moral downfall of too many to recount.
On a scale from one to ten, however, most illicit and societally-adverse events are fairly run-of-the-mill types of encounters with the law, representing lapses in judgement that can be forgiven. Sometimes, however, an event can be so bone-chillingly evil that it haunts one's sensibilities.
A man who has recounted that on the date he committed the most unforgivable act possible for a human being, to the extent he forfeits entirely his humanity, admitted he had consumed nine bottles of beer, smoked marijuana, and 'probably' consumed cocaine, before turning to his spouse requesting sex, which she refused.
After midnight, the man left his house in the company of a knife, carrying with him two bottles of beer, and in his words looking for "a party". The knife, he had explained to police, always accompanied him when he was out on the streets, prowling to acquire cocaine.
This man, 20 years of age at the time, living in Cornwall, Ontario, walked through the neighbourhood and eventually stood before a house that he recalled being at in the past where a woman he had experienced a previous relationship with lived. It occurred to him to surprise that woman.
He silently entered the home, removed his shoes and made his way to the second floor, where he knew a bedroom was located. And he assumed that he would find in the bed in that bedroom the woman for whom he was looking.
Shane Haley informed police he was intoxicated to the extent that he simply could not recall from memory whether it was the five-year-old child whom he encountered in the bed screaming or that he was startled to find the little girl rather than her mother, that set off the sequence of events that found him on trial.
His reaction was to slash the little girl's throat "virtually from ear to ear", three times. Then he proceeded to stab the child nine times in the chest with his seven-inch blade. That was the knife that guaranteed his safety when he was out and about on dark street corners accosting cocaine vendors.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the 2008 death of Alissa Martin-Travers. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years. Is that long enough for murdering a child? One psychopath imprisoned at taxpayers' expense to remove him from the streets for 18 years, representing society's punishment for taking a precious life?
Alissa's mother and the child's other relatives listened with anguished pain as the description of the slaughter of their little girl was aired in court.
On a scale from one to ten, however, most illicit and societally-adverse events are fairly run-of-the-mill types of encounters with the law, representing lapses in judgement that can be forgiven. Sometimes, however, an event can be so bone-chillingly evil that it haunts one's sensibilities.
A man who has recounted that on the date he committed the most unforgivable act possible for a human being, to the extent he forfeits entirely his humanity, admitted he had consumed nine bottles of beer, smoked marijuana, and 'probably' consumed cocaine, before turning to his spouse requesting sex, which she refused.
After midnight, the man left his house in the company of a knife, carrying with him two bottles of beer, and in his words looking for "a party". The knife, he had explained to police, always accompanied him when he was out on the streets, prowling to acquire cocaine.
This man, 20 years of age at the time, living in Cornwall, Ontario, walked through the neighbourhood and eventually stood before a house that he recalled being at in the past where a woman he had experienced a previous relationship with lived. It occurred to him to surprise that woman.
He silently entered the home, removed his shoes and made his way to the second floor, where he knew a bedroom was located. And he assumed that he would find in the bed in that bedroom the woman for whom he was looking.
Shane Haley informed police he was intoxicated to the extent that he simply could not recall from memory whether it was the five-year-old child whom he encountered in the bed screaming or that he was startled to find the little girl rather than her mother, that set off the sequence of events that found him on trial.
His reaction was to slash the little girl's throat "virtually from ear to ear", three times. Then he proceeded to stab the child nine times in the chest with his seven-inch blade. That was the knife that guaranteed his safety when he was out and about on dark street corners accosting cocaine vendors.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the 2008 death of Alissa Martin-Travers. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years. Is that long enough for murdering a child? One psychopath imprisoned at taxpayers' expense to remove him from the streets for 18 years, representing society's punishment for taking a precious life?
Alissa's mother and the child's other relatives listened with anguished pain as the description of the slaughter of their little girl was aired in court.
Labels: Catastrophe, Family, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 6:32 PM
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