2 MONTH sentence for child rapist

[48Highlander]

Stonings seem more common in non-democratic countries, unless you'd care to name some democracies that allow "barbaric" punishments.

How about Pakistan?  If you'd care to google it, you'll notice a lot of the news about stoning and abuse of women come in "democratic" countries.

This Pakistani citizen, for instance, had the following to say during his trial for the rape of a 14 year old girl:

After taking an oath on the Qur’an, the man – known only as MSK – told the court he had committed four attacks on girls as young as 13 because they had no right to say “no.” They were not covering their face or wearing a headscarf, and therefore, the rapist proclaimed: “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

Sure, the official government in Pakistan may frown upon such things, however, unofficial "islamic law" courts there tend not to see eye-to-eye with the "democratic" government.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Good example, 48, thanks.

Getting back to Caesar's statement about "expressing an opinion".  Umm...that's certainly what I did.

I think the opinion that child rape is bad is universal.  My own opinion is that it doesn't warrant first degree murder. There are standards for self defence, and based on my limited understanding of the law, it isn't met here.  Whether or not it merits the death sentence, I have no opinion, but it's certainly another discussion, and on the face of it, I don't think I'd be terribly upset by such a sentence.

As for two months, I think it seems light, even without knowing the details of the case.  Infanteer has explained, rather well, why the sentence deserved to have a punishment component. 

Jungle and others suggest the rate of reoffence is sufficiently high to warrant more extreme measures.  Whatever those measures are, subverting the justice system doesn't seem to be an option.  My opinion is that suggesting first degree murder, with profane adjectives thrown in for good measure, is simple emotional white noise and reflects poorly on the person using such language, especially if they are generally known - as Caesar is - for intelligent posts.  I don't think we need to convince each other all that hard that we are against the actions perpetrated by this criminal; calling for a lynch mob is just counter productive. 

In fact, it makes us no better than the guys in Pakistan throwing stones.

 

[NavComm]

"But Judge Cashman explained that he is more concerned that Hulett receive sex offender treatment as rehabilitation. But under Department of Corrections classification, Hulett is considered a low-risk for re-offense so he does not qualify for in-prison treatment.So the judge sentenced him to just 60 days in prison and then Hulett must complete sex treatment when he gets out or face a possible life sentence."

I think this is the crux right here. The judge, knowing that if he sends this guy to prison, the guy will not get treatment and will be out in no time to do it all over again.

It's not as if the judge has a lot of alternatives (if the U.S. system is as soft on criminals as we are) and his experience tells him that sending this guy to prison doesn't protect anyone except for the short amount of time he's locked up.

Whether we agree with the system of rehabilitation or not, it's the aim of our justice system (to rehabilitate offenders) and it's not going to change any time soon. We don't have a law that says (and I doubt they have one in the U.S. either) we can lock up child rapists for ever and ever. "Life in prison" should be renamed to something like "about 20 yrs (give or take) of your life in prison and then you're free to go". That means a 20 yr old rapist could be free once he's 40ish. Plenty of time left in that pathetic life to re-offend.

In our soft judicial system here, we'd probably let the guy out with no conditions and he'd be free to rape another little girl within months or weeks of his sentencing (if he doesn't do it while he's between trials). It's very rare in Canada for an accused to be labelled a 'dangerous offender' and without that label many of our most depraved citizens are walking around in your neighbourhood and mine just waiting for their next victim.

 

[dutchie]

We don't have a law that says (and I doubt they have one in the U.S. either) we can lock up child rapists for ever and ever.

Actually, I believe we have the Dangerous Offender status option than enables Correction Canada to keep someone deemed to high of a threat to society in prison indefinately. I don't know if Vermont has that or not, but I suspect they do.

 

[NavComm]

Yes, but as I said later in my post, it's very rarely used. I can't think of too many of our even more infamous killers who have been designated dangerous offenders. I'm not even sure that Clifford Olsen is. I'll try to research that a bit more and get back to you.

We have some good laws on our books in Canada, it's just too bad that the prosecutors and the courts are unwilling or unable to implement them.

modified to add: regarding Olsen, I doubt he has been designated because IIRC he had a 'faint hope hearing' a few years ago and I don't believe dangerous offenders can apply under s. 745.6. Maybe someone else on the forum will know, but I'll try to do a bit of digging to find out also.

 

[48Highlander]

Infanteer, I'd say that rape does deserve the death penalty. It can destroy a woman, or a man (mentally). It can kill a person without stopping their heart. Yes, it's just that bad, and it can take a long time for someone to recover from something like that, the most extreme possible violation of their person which they watch and experience, often for a long period of time, and be powerless to stop.

Ya know, there's many "experts" who will tell you that bullying does the same thing.  Do we shoot all bullies too?

I still beleive in the eye-for-an-eye theory of law.  And these...."individuals"....will get the same treatment if we just lock 'em up for a reasonable period.  Maybe after they've been someones bitch for long enough, they'll understand why it's wrong to rape.

 

[NL_engineer]

Rape is a MAJOR crime! It is not like he F***** up and committed Mistermeaner (J walking). MOST people like that can not be rehabilitated.

Just my 2 cents

 

[dutchie]

Mistermeaner (J walking).

Good post, but this bit was funny. Is Mistermeaner related MissCranky?

Btw, it's spelled misdemeanor

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Mr. Meaner and Jay Walking... weren't they a pop sensation in the '70's?

It's possible I suppose that Judge Cashman was "driven" to his current position by 25 years of watching convicted criminals enter the system, milk it an leave again, more hardened and bitter than when they entered it. The net result is a more determined criminal and a large taxpayers bill. From that perspective, my disgust with the man is almost mitigated... but not quite.

The justice system failed the victim spectacularly in this case, and we can only hope that there won't be additional victims as a result of this mistake.

 

[NL_engineer]

There was a nice statement made on my local news, the jest of it was "Canada has to give up on "criminal rights" and move towards victim rights". This was in responce to victims being treated worse then the criminals.

 

[The_Falcon]

I know I posted this in the Death Penalty Debate, but there ARE some states that consider child rape a capital crime, unfortunately Vermount doesn't appear to be one of them.  Dorosh what details would you like to know about this case?  It said everything we need to know, she was REPEATEDLY RAPED FOR 3 YEARS.  I don't ANY of us here should be entitled to know the exact gory details.  The fact that he DELIBERATELY and REPEATEDLY RAPED this child over a number of years should mean that he is either executed or incarcerated in General Population for the rest of his natural life.  This guy CAN NOT be rehabilated, there he should be removed permantely from society, so as to never harm anybody ever again.  I mean look at the sentence handed down for the guy who repeatedly raped that young girl at Disney World (the case that TPS made famous by releasing the edited photos).  He litteraly bought the girl from Russia and used her as a sex slave for 5 years.  He now has 100 years to ponder his crime.