Should Lucy Letby have been allowed to miss her sentencing?
Should Lucy Letby have been allowed to miss her sentencing?
Until a few years ago I had never heard of a single case of a murderer declining to go into the dock to hear their sentence. I doubt whether any of them even realised that they had the choice. Yet in recent years, the word seems to have spread and something of a fashion has
I'm listening to LBC callers say that forcing the convict to attend their sentencing hearing 'smacks of medievalism'. All kinds of hell-fire would be unleashed if this law was overturned.
Yet in the US and other countries, convicts are forced to attend their sentencing hearings and the sky didn't fall. What is so fucking special about the UK?
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The defendant is going to be punished. Forcing them to attend the sentencing, especially in cases like this, would not be in their interest at all, only in the interest of punishment and the victims families would this be a benefit. I'm not saying that I agree with that at all, but it's a rational argument against forcing them to attend.
Setting aside that this case might be an exception because it seems she was mentally ill, shouldn't the benefit of the victim's families take priority over the convict?
Personally, I agree with you in a moralistic fashion. I'm not sure that legally they can do that.
They're discussing what the law should be, so by definition whatever they decide would be legal.
Forcing them to attend the sentencing, especially in cases like this, would not be in their interest at all, only in the interest of punishment and the victims families would this be a benefit.
See I think this is a bit dangerous to the victims families. This is a murderer, going away for their entire life. She has literally nothing to lose at this point. She could have hurled abuse at the victims. At the judge. Screamed incoherently. Self harmed. Attempted to harm others. There is no further punishment that we as a society could inflict upon her.