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Bethnai -> RE: DNA & crime (4/21/2008 10:37:49 AM)
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I have problems with this all over the place.
Should damage awards be linked to projected life span at all?
No. You can't project what that person would have made for the rest of their life. There are too many outside influences. That would be a hell of a courtroom to sit in. Can you imagine it?
"Had Joe Blow from Kokomo been able to live a full life working at the plant and retired. He would have made such and such?"
"Not really. The plant was being moved to Mexico and had he of gone he would have made $1.20 an hour. Besides, he was on a last chance agreement. He took his vacations in Florida, where occasionally swimming in the ocean he might have encountered a shark. "
And a 2005 Supreme Court decision barred capital punishment for offenders younger than 18, citing scientific findings of an "underdeveloped sense of responsibility" in minors.
Actually, its a piece of the brain that deals with time and consequences and does not grow in until after the age of 18.
Here is the thing, we are facing the same arguments that we had forever, only they are cloaked in updated terms. In fact, some of the same groups and organizations are still around. Validated by a few scientists that receive funding for research from them. The first time that I encountered some of these organizations was in a course that I had taken, one of the books was called the Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism by Stefan Kuhl. This is the reinvention of nature vs. nurture.
When someone goes to a criminal court, you may say these things:
Yes, I did it.
No, I did not.
Yes, I did it but here are the mitigating factors. Thats it.
If you are facing the death penalty, the appeals deal with procedural error only. If you add into this that 90% of all cases have a plea bargain, which does not actually mean that the person is guilty, it means that the prosecutor managed to scare the crap out of them then its on a different level.
Not to mention the number of people in prison, where DNA does not help or hinder-its not a factor.
Using genetics to determine how many people make it on the outside after the fact does not even begin to deal with how society refuses to accept felons that have done the time for the crime.
Ok, I feel like I'm rambling. I think I should have drank a touch more coffee before responding but my genes made me do it.
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