tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post844346018527049203..comments2024-03-29T03:41:12.499+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Murder And The Media: The Relentless Pursuit Of Pain And Pathos.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-68984587497404711132014-12-14T18:05:07.296+13:002014-12-14T18:05:07.296+13:00Very powerful argument, Rick. I'm pleased that...Very powerful argument, Rick. I'm pleased that you decided it was necessary to talk about it.manfredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05864320667710466331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70306375880729167572014-12-06T12:14:40.765+13:002014-12-06T12:14:40.765+13:00The John Howard attitude to crime and punishment s...The John Howard attitude to crime and punishment shows we were already losing our stomach for execution. It's a driving reason why we turned to transportation to the colonies but did anybody stop to think how we are supposed to do this if we are one of the we who migrated? "I'm sending you to Tasmania" kinda loses its thunder when you're already there. So the 'we' in Blighty gets to keep their hands clean and the 'we' over here is passed the buck of how to reconcile execution with humanism.<br /><br />The Caryl Chessman story(still taught at UC to we youngsters <70 as long as Greg Newbold is lecturing with his slide projector, as now) is the old New England penal colony dealing with that. To read about Joseph Burns' hanging, Nz's first, in 1847, and the flotilla and parade that went with it shows that 'we' didn't all find this reconciliation immediately confronting.<br /><br />So, *unless* we bring back the medieval Ship of Fools or the modern pharmaceutical equivalent then it falls to us to...solve...this...Oh, wait. We should be all good then. <br /><br /><br />Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06315796390662297759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-68442756987220948072014-12-06T09:27:10.635+13:002014-12-06T09:27:10.635+13:00The whole purpose of the Crown making itself the a...The whole purpose of the Crown making itself the aggrieved party – as opposed to the victim’s relatives – along with the state’s insistence on being the only agency legally entitled to exact retribution for proven offences, is at risk of being forgotten.<br /><br />While I share your ambivalence about the media's role in public discussion, you can't avoid the primacy of the right to have a criminal wrong redressed by invoking the Crown's intermediary role in the administration of justice.<br /><br />While the sentencing process requires judges to consider many factors, criminal justice is comprised of the imposition of an appropriately severe punishment. The centrality of the need to ensure the sufficiency of punishment vis-a-vis victims shouldn't be obscured by the fact that justice also requires us to treat offenders fairly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com