Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
 If you end up with community service for a speeding ticket your lawyer got owned bad.
In addition to getting kicked out of school, a serious punishment whether you acknowledge it or not, I've said that a criminal conviction and/or community service would be acceptable. This is considerably different than "essentially... unpunished". |
Getting kicked out of school isn't a state issue. It's irrelevant to the criminal prosecution. Should the state lighten the punishment if his parents promise to take his car away and ground him for a couple of months?
You seem to favor conviction on a misdemeanor rather than a felony, a misdemeanor doesn't even go on most resumes.
It's nothing. The state is essentially giving the kid a pass by making him plant a few trees and pick up garbage for a few weeks.
It's a double standard you're applying to young, intelligent kids precisely
because they're young and intelligent. That's not how the justice system should work. If we're going to de-humanize the victim by ignoring the suicide and thus ignoring his sensitivities, isn't it fair to de-humanize the perpetrators by ignoring their age and future?
If you want to do this as clinically and technically as possible, these kids' futures are irrelevant, as was the victim's suicide. If you want to consider the ramifications of the punishment on the criminals, then you also have to consider the ramifications of their conduct on the victim (thus the suicide should come back into play).
Otherwise you're just all over the map on the factor you consider important in this matter.
(And as for the community service on a speeding ticket - the prosecutor in Columbia is a dick. He insists on community service for any SIS).