tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476621888383604834.post4652266514797061991..comments2024-02-15T03:26:38.897-05:00Comments on Health Care Organizational Ethics: Should 14 Year Olds be Sentenced to Life in Prison?Jim Sabinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03087828142188534542noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476621888383604834.post-83600117471860467292012-01-21T10:44:36.697-05:002012-01-21T10:44:36.697-05:00Dear Anonymous -
I've never yet been on a jur...Dear Anonymous -<br /><br />I've never yet been on a jury (I have jury duty in a week, so perhaps I'll be called), but I think the comment you make is just the kind of discussion a jury would have. As Ken's comment indicated, we don't have an X Ray of the mind that tells us whether someone is telling the truth or lying, so we have to use our own reasoning powers. In reading the story I reacted much as you did, but if we were part of a jury, others might argue for a different perspective. Thoughtful decisions by a "jury of our peers" is the best that we can do. For me the jury system is a vintage example of a fair process for dealing with uncertainty when decisions have to be made.<br /><br />Thank you for your comment!<br /><br />Best<br /><br />JimJim Sabinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03087828142188534542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476621888383604834.post-45933600572484829962012-01-19T22:14:34.343-05:002012-01-19T22:14:34.343-05:00Why would he lie? At that point everything would s...Why would he lie? At that point everything would seem a bit ethereal, and he would not think of lying. in the case he said that he felt he had to answer to cops, and he did not seem the tyype to lie. in scholl he was a "good boy" who didn't get in trouble.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476621888383604834.post-13394411729635387612012-01-16T11:41:52.966-05:002012-01-16T11:41:52.966-05:00Hi Ken -
Good to hear from you! And thank you for...Hi Ken -<br /><br />Good to hear from you! And thank you for the thoughtful comment.<br /><br />In life and in all my years of psychiatric practice I've thought a lot about the issue you raise - how we assess what is or was in a person's mind. You're right that all we have to go on here is Dakotah's testimony. He could be deceiving himself or consciously lying. His grandmother's confirmation that he was a "good boy" and the fact that a girlfriend had dumped him and another friend had recently committed suicide were <i>consistent</i> with his report, but don't prove that he's telling the truth.<br /><br />Mandatory sentencing will inevitably create injustices, as will judicial prerogative. I favor (a) clear but non-mandatory sentencing guidelines combined with (b) requiring a statement of rationale for deviating from the guidelines and (c) review of "outliers" by a superior court.<br /><br />Given that we have no way of proving that a specific sentence is the "right answer," the best we can do is to establish procedures that can be seen as fair and reasonable. That's the rationale for the jury system itself!<br /><br />Again, thank you for the thoughtful comments!<br /><br />Best<br /><br />JimJim Sabinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03087828142188534542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476621888383604834.post-16145329807053031212012-01-16T11:12:07.722-05:002012-01-16T11:12:07.722-05:00I read that article. One thing that struck me abo...I read that article. One thing that struck me about it (as a consumer of news) was that it accepts uncritically the story that the killer tells about the murder and his state of mind leading up to it. I suppose whether or not this is precisely true is unimportant to the question of whether it makes sense to treat him as an adult, and it definitely doesn't bear upon how and when people display grief or remorse. <br /><br />But while it would have made a less compelling New Yorker piece, I wonder how the article would read if only the externally confirmable facts had been presented? How much of our reaction to the child's situation results from the (perhaps overly sympathetic) presentation of his internal state?<br /><br />Finally, it strikes me (not for the first time) that mandatory sentencing laws are as unjust and capricious as leaving all sentencing decisions to individual judges. But at least if we leave them to judges, we can have (not sure whether we _do_ have) an appeals process to correct judges' decisions that are off the rails. When we use mandatory sentencing laws, we lose the wisdom of judges who are wise and replace it with political expediency.Ken Kleinmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09525118721291529157noreply@blogger.com