CASE SHOWS JUSTICE 'BLIND' TO REALITY AND FAIRNESS
Another disaster bringing shame to our legal system and despair to the community.
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In Queensland a young hoon, already carrying a two to three-page list of convictions, is unlicensed, drunk and doped-up, driving a stolen vehicle at illegal speed, crashes into another vehicle, then runs down and kills a young couple, does a runner and is collared by a citizen.
He appears in court charged with two murders and other charges. He makes the usual claim of "not responsible due to drink and drugs".
The prosecution accepts pleas of guilty for manslaughter.
A caring and sensitive judge, obviously touched by the defendant's remorse, "awards" a six-year sentence with 60 per cent to be served. This is not a penance, it is a gift!
Nothing in law can ever replace the loss, or assuage the pain and lifelong suffering endured by family and friends of the victims.
Justice must be done and, importantly, must be seen to be done.
Justice is often deemed to be "Themis", a blindfolded Roman goddess carrying a set of scales, which is supposed to depict the unbiased fairness of justice.
Today I think it signifies that justice itself is blind to reality and fairness.
How can we accept that the value of the lives of our children is worth only six years of the life of the criminal perpetrator of their deaths?
There is also a serious case of a need for the members of our judicial fraternity to be given retraining in the obligations and community expectations of their judgments.
These scenarios occur Australia wide.
Tim Whitehead, Urana
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