Friday, August 14, 2009

A short post about killing


Breaking news: killing your relative is alright, so long as it is done with love and superstition. But then we knew already that religious manslaughter has a special status.

2 comments:

Peter in Dundee said...

And here was me thinking that ignorance was no defence under the law. That was after all why they were charged with manslaughter and not murder, they failed in their duty of care. Their ridiculous beliefs overriding their reason and humanity should have been an aggravating factor in sentencing not a mitigating one. What signal has been sent regarding their future behaviour when faced with a similar situation?

Cultural sensitivity has blinded this judge to the dangers inherent with this belief. Cultural bases should be no barrier to stamping out harmful practices as the eradication of Kuru in PNG showed.

Richard said...

Clayton Weatherston will be kicking himself that he didn't think of that as a defense.