The Capital Letter - by BerlinBear
I'm not particularly concerned about his rights once he's not only taken someone's life, but also demonstrated the desire to do so again. I'd say he's fresh out of rights.
Well, we disagree there. Sorry, but criminals have human rights too and those must be maintained even as they are being punished. Besides, under the initial decision of the Turkish courts, he had served his punishment. Once a prison sentence has been served, should it not be the case that the criminal in question be *fully* restored to normal membership of society? Or would you maintain that once a (serious) crime has been committed, the criminal in question is destined to be "fresh out of rights" for the rest of his or her days? In so doing, you are basically sentencing all (serious) criminals to punishment for life. That's fine if you want it that way, and some countries do have 'life' for murder and mean it literally. But for countries that don't, e.g. Turkey, Germany, New Zealand, etc. it'd be pretty hypocritical to pretend that the sentence was over after 10 or 20 years, or however long it is, only to then deny the former prisoner certain basic rights for the rest of their life, which would seem to be what you are suggesting.
Of course, each circumstance is different. True, a sentence that has been served should be respected, otherwise, we're little better than anarchistic. I don't agree with the sentence, actually - that's where I get hung up. This isn't even a one-time occurrance (which, if premeditated, warrants this person being sanctioned to spending his life away from the rest of society, in my opinion)... but he demonstrated his ability and desire to do it again. That's why I think he ought to be tossed in prison for good. Shame on his government for not realizing it from the get go.
Well, then your problem is with the Turkish legal system. And you'd have the same problem with the German legal system and the New Zealand legal system too. In all of those countries and many other besides, "life" is not life, but rather somewhere between 10 and 20 years. Often, even where the judge would like to sentence a person to life imprisonment, his or her hands are tied by a maximum sentence attached to a particular crime. There was just such a case in Germany last year, with the cannibal Armin Meiwes. Because he was only found guilty of "Totschlag", which is approximaely equal to manslaughter, he could not be locked away for any more than a handful of years, even though it is pretty clear to all concerned that the guy probably ought to be locked away for ever and ever. I blogged about way back when (perhaps April last year), so if you fancy trawling through the archives....
Commenting by HaloScan
