Re: Bell vs. Woodward--justice?

[Fabrice Planchon <fabrice@math.Princeton.EDU>]

On lun 10 nov  1997 � 01:06:08PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> 
> Apparently shaking a baby to death is a lesser crime than opposing
> government fascism and having a continuing interest in chemistry.

I just read the judge statement and found it rather good. It seems to me
that he explains quite well the motivations of his decisions and so
on. Now, wether he would have taken time to deeply think about the issue
if the whole thing was taking place in a small american town with a
babysitter from the neighborhood and no big media coverage, we don't
know. It seems that the only thing which can be argued is wether the
final sentence is appropriate or not. I guess the media will provide us
with statistics on "how long you have to stay in prison when you have
been convicted of manslaughter". I would expect a few years. She finally
spent a little bit more than one year. Ok. Still, from what we have seen
of the american justice system in the past few years, I feel like this
is an improvement, where common sense takes over money, racial issues,
politics, etc. Or am I fooled by the media ;-) ?

> The au pair Louise Woodward will serve less time in jail than Jim Bell
> will. While Bell languishes in a Washington state jail, awaiting (for
> almost 7 months!!) his sentence, the convicted babykiller is now free.

As I said, she served some time waiting for her trial, too. Don't you
think you are shooting the wrong target here ? I mean, I certainly agree
that what's happening to Jim Bell seems like a parody of justice (and
you have Mitnick, too, and other examples can be found), but why to make
a comparaison between the two (or, let me rephrase it, as you have
actually all the rights to make a comparaison, it terms of how long did
the procedure take, and so on), why would you say "as the judicial
system is not working with Jim Bell, it shouldn't be working with the
babysitter" ? or explain why you think it would be a fair sentence to
let her in jail for the rest of her life ? (well, ok, at least 15 years
before parole)

                        F.

-- 
Fabrice Planchon                                          (ph) 609/258-6495
Applied Math Program, 210 Fine Hall                      (fax) 609/258-1735