A New York judge sentenced a woman who pleaded guilty to fatally shoving an 87-year-old Broadway singing coach onto a Manhattan sidewalk to six months more in prison than the eight years that had been previously reached in a plea deal.

  • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know anything about this case, but revenge is not a solution. Our penal system is totally fucked, and part of the issue is people have been told that revenge is justice. It isn’t. We will all be paying for this woman to be locked up and she won’t be able to contribute to society. If we tried to rehabilitate, that’d be one thing. We just try to punish though, and people like you act like a harsher punishment is good somehow. What good does it do?

      • Grumpy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        He’s not being a white knight towards this specific woman.

        He’s raising the topic of what is best for society.

        I agree with his point. Law and order doesn’t exist to punish people or to get revenge. It exists for the benefit of society. And putting people in jail, making them unable to contribute to society and becoming a permanent burden on society is bad for society. It doesn’t do any good.

        Frankly, I think it’s better for society to just bring back the guillotine if we aren’t going to rehabilitate.

          • angrystego@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I see a discussion about rehabilitating everyone or guillotining everyone. I don’t think there’s any need to mix race into these extremes.

            • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It’s true though. I have a family member who is a white woman that has repeatedly crashed her car into buildings while trying to run people down, fractured skulls with hammers, thrown people into oncoming traffic. She’s just got a bad temper. Nothing ever happens to her. Cops talk people out of pressing charges, she’s never even spent a night in jail.

              • angrystego@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                in jail

                Wait, but the NY woman did go to jail, didn’t she? I don’t think anyone was suggesting here that she shouldn’t have been sentenced.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            We have the data for this that it won’t. The US doesn’t have rehabilitation programs. We have punishment programs. We don’t really provide tools for people to improve their lives when they’re out. If anything, we do the opposite. If you have a criminal record of any kind, getting a job is significantly harder, which pushes people into illegal work again.

            • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              We have the data that it LIKELY won’t, but that just means we need to do better with our prisoners and rehab programs. It’s not an excuse to let someone who killed someone right back onto the streets.

              Are other countries with better rehab programs letting manslaughter convicts out in less than four years?

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_in_Swedish_law

              Apparently in Sweden you get 6-10 for manslaughter.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago

                Looks like it’d be this one, so yeah they are more lenient:

                Causing the death of another (Vållande till annans död, literally ‘causing another’s death’). It roughly corresponds to negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter. The law reads: “A person who causes the death of another person through negligence is guilty of causing the death of another and is sentenced […]” The punishment for Vållande till annans död is:

                A fine (day-fines) if the crime is petty,

                Any prison term up to 2 years, or

                Any prison term between 1 year and 6 years “if the offence is gross”.[2]

                  • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                    1 year ago

                    That requires intent. I’m pretty certain intent can’t be implied in this case. She pushed her and she fell, but was old and frail and died. She did not kill her on purpose. It’s involuntary.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Where did you get 4 years? Plea deal was for 8, judge added 6 months to that.

        This isn’t a rebuttal against what you’re saying overall btw, just a correction on the 4 years. 8.5 years still seems too short.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world by a large margin. How do you see that as acceptable? We have a culture of revenge and it doesn’t do any good. Shouldn’t the purpose of laws be to do as much good as possible, not to make people feel nice because they got revenge?

        • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There are people doing more time than her for having weed on their person or passing a bad check to buy groceries or pay rent. Let’s start there, not with people who kill old ladies because they’re mad about being asked to leave an establishment that is closing.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            We need to reform the system completely. Saying we need to start with only one crime is being shortsighted. It’s all fucked, and it’s fucked so some people can profit off of it. I agree those people serving more time is worse, but it’s a symptom of a rotten system, not something we can fix one case at a time.

            • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I mean… yeah… but I don’t think you’re going to get far arguing that violent people who kill old ladies for sport should be given less time. You’ll win more hearts and minds with literally any other type of crime (except those against kids). She is an example of someone who does need to be separated from society, for the safety of vulnerable people.

                • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  It was classed by the court as first degree manslaughter. She got angry, threw food, was “storming” down the street, saw an old lady on the other side of the street, called her a bitch, crossed the street and killed her, to placate her own rage. Yes, I would call that sport killing. It would be slightly different if the woman just happened to be in her way, but she wasn’t. She saw a target, made a decision, changed course, and killed her to meet her own emotional need. If she had been in a car and done this there wouldn’t be a question (unless of course the lady had been protesting something at the time, then game on!).

                  • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                    1 year ago

                    Thats… a wealth of assumptions. What youve detailed assumes a ton about the motive, but you didnt even detail a sport killing. Killing someone “to meet an emotional need” isnt killing for sport.

                    Youre also assuming that she knew pushing the lady over would be lethal, and that she started an argument with the express intent of justifying lethally shoving her.

                    She was drunk, bud. A drunk person incorrectly assuming a passer by is insulting them in some way and starting a fight over that assumption is so common its a writing stereotype.

                    Angrily starting a drunken argument on the street and then getting violent isnt killing for sport.

                    And, like… yeah if she had a murder weapon it sure would be different. If she had done it sober at 8 in the morning it would be different too.

                    E: it feels kinda dumb the say “thats not killing for sport” without saying why. Sport killing is killing for the fun of it. Like, intentionally hunting someone down and killing because you enjoy making someone die. Theres no evidence publicly available that she shoved the victim because she wanted to kill her, for the purpose of personal enjoyment.

    • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Oh no, who could have ever predicted that actions might have consequences. She killed someone, completely unprovoked to boot. It’s not revenge to lock her ass up, it’s the consequence of her killing someone.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        It’s still revenge. I agree there should be some consequences, but should it be for life? I can use your exact argument to just keep increasing the sentence. At what point is it not acceptable? Should every mistake be a life sentence? The US already has the worst incarceration rate by far in the world. Why are people still ok with this shit? Why do they think this argument is acceptable? It doesn’t work as a deterrent, so what’s the point, besides making you feel good about getting revenge?

        • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. Without personal emotion I do not believe it to be revenge and with a professional judge upholding judicial standards set by society I do not believe the consequence bestowed on this woman displays any signs of being revenge. That’s not so say I agree that is true for every punishment but it most certainly aligns in this case, I’m sure that line will look different for different folks. She purposefully acted in a violent manner that directly killed somebody. No unpredictable tools, mechanisms, devices, or external factors were at play. Her hands and her mind alone violently shoved and killed this woman. Eight years seems plenty appropriate to me. Depending on circumstances, some within her control, should could see a meaningful reduction to that sentence. Theirs plenty of incarceration issues to take issue with that display a failed system, this isn’t one of them in my assessment.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            My biggest issue is this was obviously spontaneous. The punishment likely would play no factor in preventing this from happening. If the sentence is death, she still probably would have done it because it wasn’t considered. In that case, what does 8 years do that 4 years or life also doesn’t do? The harshness of the sentence doesn’t matter and it’s just another person to pay taxes to keep in prison who is providing nothing in that time. What good does it do besides making people feel like she got what she deserved (aka, revenge).

    • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Rehabilitation and revenge are two out of the four aims of sentencing. There’s also deterrence and prevention: sending a message to everyone else that this is not okay, and simply keeping the convict away from the public so they can’t hurt anyone else.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Except we have the data for this. Long sentences don’t work effectively for deterrence. If it did, sure. Since it doesn’t, that’s not valid.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Let’s say you accidentally hit someone with your car. Does that deserve a life sentence? You killed someone and I draw the line at killing, so I think we should lock you away forever. Stupid, right? I’m not going to argue for a certain amount of punishment (none of it effectively works to deter crime, especially accidental), but I will argue that we need to fix our system. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world and that doesn’t need to be the case. We could have rehabilitation instead of torture too, which would help people when they finally do get out to contribute to society.

    • Franzia
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      1 year ago

      Lmao I can want prison to be a place of rehabilitation and still want a criminal to spend time locked up, away from society.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Yes, they would still be locked up for a period of time. I don’t know what the right amount of time is, but just wanting more always creates more issues. You can always ask for more. It never ends. The sentencing time should be based on data and science, not feelings.