Man, 92, convicted of raping and murdering Bristol woman in 1967
Ryland Headley found guilty of killing Louisa Dunne after DNA breakthrough in cold case review
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He was originally jailed for life but at an appeal doctors told the court the rapes arose of sexual frustration arising out of his marriage to an “ambitious and demanding” wife. The sentence was reduced and he spent only about two years in jail.
Why are rapists seemingly the only category of offender judges always manage to find sympathy for?
Male judges who have experienced similar events in their lives maybe? Rape cases should be judged by a 3 judge court where they must have more than one gender or at least another gender other than the perp.
You could expand that to a general principle for all criminal cases: select one judge that matches the demographics of the defendant as closely as possible, one that matches the victim, and one that differs to an equal degree from both.
We're already significantly short on judges. Requiring judges in triplicate would have some crazy side effects. Court cases currently take too long to resolve due to the shortage. The entire system would grind to a literal standstill.
You could restrict it to cases where the victim and defendant belong to significantly different demographics, then.
It's an interesting concept, but aside from the scalability issues mentioned, I don't think demographics are necessarily an indicator of a judge's biases cough Clarence Thomas cough.
Because the people making the decision are the same ones who are a bad day away from being judged.
That's a hell of a reduction.
Came here to post this same quote lol
WTF, that's ridiculous!
