Sunday, January 22, 2006

Injustice

What kind of punishment do you think a guy should get if he pours gasoline on his wife, who is recovering from knee surgery, and throws a lit newspaper on her, killing her by burning her alive? What if he said that the reason he did it was because of years of emotional and physical abuse, a claim that her relatives say is just plain not true?

Death? Life in prison? How about only 25 years in jail?

Well, to my knowledge, that's a purely hypothetical situation. But with the genders reversed, it's not. A woman in Missouri who did just that to her husband was sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Now, I'm not saying that her gender has anything to do with her sentence, but 25 years for killing a person by dousing them in gas and setting them on fire? That's just not right.

5 Comments:

At 12:31 PM, Blogger Jerry Yoakum said...

The story is even worse than you described. The guy made it out of his mobile home where she set him on fire again in front of the neighbors.

I completely agree that 25 years is not enough. She should not be in the company of other humans. We should treat people like that as if they are pure evil, and be fearful that her foulness might somehow rub off on more people.

It disturbes me that this woman will likely live a good decade or two after getting out of prison. How will the family deal with that?

Alright kids were going to see Grandma today. Let's go over the rules:
1) Never mention Grandpa.
2) Never mention fire.
3) Don't ask where Grandma has been.
4) If Grandma goes near gas or matches or a lighter you should run. RUN! RUN!

 
At 8:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, one time OJ simpson got off with murder

 
At 3:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Uh, 25 years in jail is a lot - am I supposed to be outraged by it not being enough? In my country the maximum prison sentence is twenty-one years. From what I hear, your prisons are also pretty nasty places(to some degree ours are too, of course, prisons tend to be nasty places) - spending twenty-five years in one is pretty much undoubtedly going to wreck one's life completely anyway, isn't it?

It's not as if anyone's ever going to say "I'll just set fire to my husband - I can deal with 25 years in prison". No one will intentionally choose a path of action that will lead to spending two and a half decades in prison. Further punishment would seem to merely be based on a wish to commit revenge, which a civilised society shouldn't do for its own sake.

 
At 2:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you aren't making this a gender issue, then what are you saying? What is the point of your whole first paragraph?
You also go on to point out that you think that "with the genders reversed" things would be different.

I think it's rather plain that the point you're trying to make is that woman get lesser sentences. Why don't you just come out and say that. Sexism isn't something to be ashamed of. People have been doing it for millennia.

 
At 10:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well women should be treated like men when it comes to things like this. Sexism is a stupid thing. Men won't hit women back beceuase we are "weaker". We have to put up with more then they do in the pain catagory so sexism is wrong. The lady should have had the same punishment as a man would. Who would want her living with or near them?

 

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