I Lose Big Again
I was hoping that Scott Peterson would be found innocent or at least would draw a less severe verdict. Instead it is first degree. Yet no one knows the degree of S. Peterson's guilt except him, and, by having incessantly called him a liar, people have in effect shut off any point in hearing from him.
I am always in favor of people being found innocent. That's why I am so hopelessly distant from all the wheels that turn the world. After all, what kind of a world would it be if thoroughgoing bleeding hearts like me were in charge? And in fact, what is a person like me even doing in this kind of world? I am clearly a huge aberration, and I know it.
We are taught that an accused person is presumed innocent until found guilty. I came in on Court TV's coverage late, but through the several months that I did listen, I never heard one of them presuming that S. Peterson was innocent. Quite the contrary.
Surely the afternoon people at Court TV are delirious with happiness that, true to their most devout wishes and demands, another person will be delivered into the murderous maw -- the prisons and maybe the execution chambers -- of the American criminal revenge system, there to spend long years in the ugliest and emptiest of lives.
What is accomplished by this so rigorously resolved circumstantial case? I strongly doubt if anyone tiring of a spouse will keep this case in mind. Regretfully, the apparently highly appealing Laci Peterson will not be brought back to life. The fetus prematurely given the name "Connor" will not be brought into the first light of day at all. The Rochas will not regain their child. The Petersons will lose one of theirs.
Well, I guess that, in view of what went mysteriously on during their long deliberations, a number of the jurors, if not all of them, stand to become rich and renowned, as people crawl all over them to hear their story.
But the human species will in no way be upgraded by this experience, nor will the legal system be improved.
I lost big again, and so imperfect is the legal system and so often is it driven by sheer hysteria and dogma instead of by calm reasoning, fairness, and mercy, that I suspect that you have lost, too.
I am always in favor of people being found innocent. That's why I am so hopelessly distant from all the wheels that turn the world. After all, what kind of a world would it be if thoroughgoing bleeding hearts like me were in charge? And in fact, what is a person like me even doing in this kind of world? I am clearly a huge aberration, and I know it.
We are taught that an accused person is presumed innocent until found guilty. I came in on Court TV's coverage late, but through the several months that I did listen, I never heard one of them presuming that S. Peterson was innocent. Quite the contrary.
Surely the afternoon people at Court TV are delirious with happiness that, true to their most devout wishes and demands, another person will be delivered into the murderous maw -- the prisons and maybe the execution chambers -- of the American criminal revenge system, there to spend long years in the ugliest and emptiest of lives.
What is accomplished by this so rigorously resolved circumstantial case? I strongly doubt if anyone tiring of a spouse will keep this case in mind. Regretfully, the apparently highly appealing Laci Peterson will not be brought back to life. The fetus prematurely given the name "Connor" will not be brought into the first light of day at all. The Rochas will not regain their child. The Petersons will lose one of theirs.
Well, I guess that, in view of what went mysteriously on during their long deliberations, a number of the jurors, if not all of them, stand to become rich and renowned, as people crawl all over them to hear their story.
But the human species will in no way be upgraded by this experience, nor will the legal system be improved.
I lost big again, and so imperfect is the legal system and so often is it driven by sheer hysteria and dogma instead of by calm reasoning, fairness, and mercy, that I suspect that you have lost, too.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 7:20 PM
1 Comments:
I am late to the party, having not much contemplated this case before now, but a lot of people seem overjoyed at a verdict that I see as likely not meeting the reasonable doubt standard. Then there's the law that was passed specifically for this case, which may have implications for the abortion debate. Then there's TalkLeft's conclusion that Peterson did not receive a thorough defense. All that popular enthusiasm led me to post this bit of ancient verse over on Bark Bark Woof Woof:
The silver swan, who living had no note.
When death approach'd, unlock'd her silent throat;
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more.
Farewell, all joys; O Death, come close mine eyes;
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.
- Orlando Gibbons
I'm not planning on either dying immediately or singing my first and last, but I certainly agree about the relative proportion of geese and swans.
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