The judge down in Florida found
She was guilty, and thus he was bound;
He must put her away…
And so women, today,
Learned a lesson—you must stand your ground.
Headline: Florida woman sentenced to 20 years in controversial warning shot case
So… shoot unarmed black teen while “standing your ground”? Released, only arrested after public outcry. Shoot warning shot while being black and female? 20 years, with state law giving the judge no discretion.
Like the ludicrous three-strikes laws, the lesson here is clear; no warning shots.
The law favors a clean kill.
I believe the law favors high albedo.
Justice is definitely not color blind.
Too often we find cases where Justice though blind, is not tinctured with mercy. (oh forget the damn attempt to rhyme)
The Judge could have ordered a directed verdict of not guilty, or a directed verdict of a lesser included offense, were one presented. His hands were not “tied”.
It was first attributed to Thomas Aquinas, but I’ll repeat it anyway. Justice without mercy is tyranny*.
(* several sources of the quote exist. Aquinas, Gnostics, Buddhists and Wm Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice.
Firing warning shots is in fact generally not a good idea. Those bullets end up going someplace. Having said that sending someone to jail for 20 years for doing so is ridiculous. And the Conservative government here in Canada favours laws like that.
The sad thing is, if she had claimed she was trying to kill him and missed, she might be free!
I don’t want to live on this planet any more.