| | Johnbisonbear said "Seems like someone's life is cheap now a days. What a heinous murder!
Someone might know better but I think that time served counts as two times credit towards a sentence for second degree offence. So there might be a possibility the murderer could get out in a year? I really hope I'm wrong here. " |
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I think the Harper government did away with that. I think it just counts as straight time now.
I feel for the family, because it does just feel like 12 years isn't enough. But we do also have to look at the facts in this case:
1. The guy pleaded guilty, sparing the family a trial. There needs to be incentive to pleading guilty, usually in the form on a reduced sentence. While manslaughter can carry a term of life, the norm in is the 4-15 year range. So it's not an unreasonable sentence considering the charge.
2. The guy has FAS, and as such there needs to be consideration for his medical condition and ultimately it's role in his culpability. It doesn't eliminate culpability, but the behavioural issues that arise from FAS accounts at least in part for why it's over-represented in the prison population.
3. As a kid, he grew up in the system. Having known people who grew up in foster care, I know how badly that messes people up.
4. Clearly drugs and alcohol were a mitigating factor. I'm not blaming the victim, but I do wonder why she was drinking with him when she knew he was violent and she tried to get a protection order against him. We can argue the system failed because the order wasn't granted, but how often are the orders violated by the applicant themselves? It wouldn't have been a guarantee if she was choosing to be around him. Ultimately, it's not her fault he killed her, but you do have to wonder if things would have unfolded differently if she stayed away. And why didn't the relative help her if they saw him beating the tar out of her? I wish there were repercussions there for not helping her, or calling the police, or otherwise not being a bystander.
So yeah, life is cheap. I wish he could have gotten longer, but what he got wasn't unreasonable with our current laws. I just hope when he gets out at 33 that he doesn't go out and do it again.