Happy New Year! I’ve spent the day so far lazing around, eating leftover pizza and listening to music. And that’s about all I’m going to do, I think.
I’ll be back at work blogging tomorrow.
In the meantime, does anyone have any especially fond memories of Tom Martin and/or Steele from the past year?
Oh, and here’s a video from an Old School New Wave band called Polyphonic Size. It was 1983. They were from Belgium.
So there’s your answer, Starla. That child could not have had an abortion without at least one parent’s approval.
I just checked and parental notification laws do apply to RU 486, but that’s assuming she even knew it exists.
And she’s facing life in prison, which has gotten the US a lot of flack — only the US and Somalia allow it.
Steele, who the hell is Erin Pizzey? I’d google the name, but I fear I’ll either find absolutely nothing or something that makes my eyeballs bleed. I’m sorry you’re reading The Fountainhead. No worries, it eventually comes to an end if you just keep pressing ahead.
Okay fair enough, but what do you think should happen then? She did kill a baby.
Having different sentencing for children and adults doesn’t preclude still punishing children who commit crimes, no?
@katz
No, it doesn’t. But what should happen? A lesser sentence? Probation? Slap on the wrist with court ordered psychological help? Even if being 14 means you can’t be tried as an adult, certainly it doesn’t mean it’s okay to kill someone if you are 14. I’m asking for opinions.
Who the hell is saying it is okay?
“… a better path would be to follow California and North Carolina and apply a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years before parole eligibility.”
“Steele, who the hell is Erin Pizzey?” — she has a wiki page.
@starla, most women and girls in this situation find it so overwhelming that they shut down their conscious knowledge of the pregnancy. When they give birth they are so distressed they are almost in a fugue state( old terminology ), most jurisdiction will not hold them criminally responsible.
And, of course, fix sex ed.
Yoyo, idk DSM-V, but dissociative fugue is still in DSM-IV. http://behavenet.com/dissociative-disorders
Trying a 14 year old as an adult when it is pretty clear the kid is a kid makes little sense.
And if the issue is that the sentencing for a juvenile is too lenient for the worst crimes, then maybe that should be changed. Plus it feeds into the punishment first and only aspect that the US criminal justice system seems too be too enamored of.
Starla, you will probably find a whole range of opinions here about what should happen to her. I’m not really sure what you’re getting at, but it bothers me that you’re strawmanning peoples’ positions to imply that we think the fact she killed her kid is just hunky dory, nothing to see here folks, move along.
So basically Steele sat around and got sloshed on eggnog and read Rand. That’s pathetic.
I know he said he spent time with people who’s company he enjoys, but do they enjoy his company?
Starla: what everyone else, especially Katz said. Try her as a juvenile, which she is, and sentence her according to those guidelines.
There’s also a weird voting aspect to life sentences for minors: Your life is being thrown away by a system you had no hand in creating (and never will).
Katz: yeah, and if she were tried as a minor, she could at least possibly get some help. She needs it.
Starla, no one here thinks what she did is OK at all. Why do you think she should be tried as an adult?
Stella, in my first year of uni a girl in my hall had a baby in the bathroom. She had known, sort of, that she was pregnant; but as her family were strict mormons who would have exiled her from church and family if she admitted havinf sex she had repressed the entire thing. There was no ‘carrying the baby’ for nine months, there was nine months of denial, hiding, fear, isolation and shame. She would have killed her baby if she had been alone, because by that stage it isn’t a child – its something that if it can be gotten rid of, your entire world doesn’t fall apart and your family needs not know you’re going to hell.
I wasn’t trying to imply that everyone thought it was okay. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. I was saying “okay so don’t try her as an adult, but then what?” because she is 14. I know nobody thinks it’s okay. I was being sarcastic.
“So basically Steele sat around and got sloshed on eggnog and read Rand. That’s pathetic.”
Oh, I dunno. Reading Rand at any time is pathetic, yeah, but having a quiet Christmas/New Year’s isn’t. It’s the most stressful time of the year for me, all I want is for it to pass without noise (which I am extremely grateful to say it did).
Never tried eggnog so can’t say on that. 😛
In terms of actual sentencing, it comes down to the purpose of punishing crimes, which is one reason why opinions are going to vary so much.
Generally I imagine life sentences are for people who are a serious, continued danger to others. So either repeat offenders who show every sign that they’re going to keep committing crimes whenever they are released, or people who did things so heinous (eg, mass murders) that it’s simply not worth chancing it.
This girl, however, is not really a danger to anyone else, and there’s no reason to believe that she’s going to keep getting pregnant and killing babies. If the goal is to keep it from happening again, education, counseling, and access to safe contraceptives (for both her and everyone else her age) seems like the best strategy.
Kitteh’s: I am the Queen of quiet “holidays.” No shade thrown on that.
Even for adults, there are distinctions in sentencing between premeditated murder and impulsive killings. You have to look at the totality of the circumstances.
Murderers actually have one of the lowest recidivism rates of all USian criminals. Something like 1-1.5% the last time I looked (in connection with arguing with someone about the death penalty). Countries that focus on rehabilitation and education of prisoners see much lower recidivism rates that countries that focus on punishment and deterrence.
Bad news: VAWA didn’t get reauthorized for this year because the House didn’t vote on the most recent iteration of it. The culprit: House Republicans’ obstructive ways and hidebound ideology stopped its passage back in April 2012, and then there were difficult efforts at a compromise or at badgering to vote on the original bill that didn’t pay off.
This kind of situation feels too typical these days…
(Side note: no recovery funding for Hurricane Sandy victims was voted on – despite a promise by the Republicans to vote on relief aid after the fiscal cliff bill was passed. East Coasters of any political persuasion, particularly Chris Christie and Republican representatives from NJ/NY, are livid.)
OMG, Rand. I was nearly run over this morning by a big, black SUV with the license plates FNTNHED.
Steele, was that you?
::high fives hellkell:: 🙂