It is true that it is the offender who is sentenced and not the offence. Moreover, I have been unable to find the actual decision so I am going on news reports only.
That said, a factor in sentence is to show the community denunciation of a crime and I have difficulty seeing how such is met here. Surely some term of incarceration was necessary to show how wrong family violence is?
I will try to get the actual decision and if I do I will post a link to it:
Aset Magomadova, who was convicted last fall of manslaughter, was instead given a suspended sentence and three years of probation.
Magomadova used a scarf to kill her troubled daughter, Aminat, 14, after a violent struggle in their southeast
The mother was acquitted of the original second-degree murder charge.
Crown prosecutor Mac Vomberg had asked the Court of Queen
But Justice Sal LoVecchio, reading from his 25-page decision, said: "Showing mercy does not mean we approve of the act. It simply means sometimes a particular situation may demand a slightly different solution.
3 comments:
There is no way a male or father would have been handed this ruling.
Remember Latimer? Will the victims groups speak out here as they did in the Latimer case?
The judge refers to his decision as a ".. "slightly" different solution".
Slightly? Try profoundly...
The implications of this decision are just too far reaching to let it stand. Surely this will get sorted out on appeal.
Interesting contrast to this case out of PEI: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/judge+sets+precedent+child+abuse+case/3284047/story.html. Here, a Judge made a point of sentencing an offender to more time than was usual throughout the island, although his range appears to be consistent with elsewhere in the country.
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