smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Nelly, Whoa Nelly, please....., |
| Date | Fri, 28 Feb 2003 02:04:07 -0500 |
[Part 1 text/plain (2.0 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
At Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:14:02 Steven wrote:
>However, reportedly in Canada when they had such an killing occur they
>didn't give ANY background on the adolescent killer, not even his name.
>Thus, the focus is on the tragedy and not on the "make up" of the >killer
>and so on.
Alas, this has been a bad thing. The law that hides the identities of
underage killers (the Young Offenders Act) also allows them to walk away
from many crimes because they are not treated as adults. In the case of a
capital crime (such as 1st or 2nd degree murder) the killer can face the
possibility of being tried in adult court -- but, there are other mitigating
circumstances that must occur before this can happen.
The same law that protects the young offender's identity does NOT protect
the victim, and just as in your American media, we end up putting the
victims on trial because their past histories are open season. With the
young offenders, even their past crimes are not admissable as a means to
establish violent history or reckless patterns.
As much as I agree with the loathsome behaviour of the US media, our laws
are not the solution either.
Where we do differ and have been able to maintain some semblence of
objectivity in our court system is that trials are NOT allowed to be
televised, juries are sequestored for the duration of capital crime trials,
and victim impact statements are admissable as evidence against the accused.
We rarely have "trial by media" situations...except in the case of serial
rapist and murderers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka whose entire life
stories became front page news for months and ended up as celebrities for
the US and UK tabloids.
Jaimie Vernon,
President,
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
#1 West Hill Dr., Toronto, ON
M1E 3T4 Canada (416) 284-7067
_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.