"When In Rome..."
"...do as the Romans do."
I don't remember who said that, and it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that people pay attention to it.
Convicted murderer Ronald Allen Smith -- a Canadian on death row in a Montana prison -- has conveniently proclaimed himself to be "a compassionate man" in the hopes that the Canadian government will force Montana to send him home so he won't be executed. Too bad he wasn't so compassionate to the two men he admittedly tortured and killed.
This time, the answer might be no. I hope.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Who said that? Again, it does not matter. It's common practise for a criminal to claim that he "didn't know" that his actions were illegal. It's just as common to say, "Too bad, so sad, ya coulda known, ya shoulda known." In other words, do your research.
Murder is illegal in both Canada and the US. States, not the federal government, regulate crime down there, and they fix their own penalties. Some states have the death penalty. Montana is one of them. Just how did Smith figure he was going to get away with committing murder without paying the penalty for it?
Or did he figure, like a lot of others before him, that just because he's a Canadian citizen, the government of Canada will bail him out, slap his wrist, and after a suitable time spent sitting in the corner, let him go?
I don't want this guy back in Canada. He went to Montana and committed a crime for which the penalty is death. Let Montana have him.
I don't remember who said that, and it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that people pay attention to it.
Convicted murderer Ronald Allen Smith -- a Canadian on death row in a Montana prison -- has conveniently proclaimed himself to be "a compassionate man" in the hopes that the Canadian government will force Montana to send him home so he won't be executed. Too bad he wasn't so compassionate to the two men he admittedly tortured and killed.
This time, the answer might be no. I hope.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Who said that? Again, it does not matter. It's common practise for a criminal to claim that he "didn't know" that his actions were illegal. It's just as common to say, "Too bad, so sad, ya coulda known, ya shoulda known." In other words, do your research.
Murder is illegal in both Canada and the US. States, not the federal government, regulate crime down there, and they fix their own penalties. Some states have the death penalty. Montana is one of them. Just how did Smith figure he was going to get away with committing murder without paying the penalty for it?
Or did he figure, like a lot of others before him, that just because he's a Canadian citizen, the government of Canada will bail him out, slap his wrist, and after a suitable time spent sitting in the corner, let him go?
I don't want this guy back in Canada. He went to Montana and committed a crime for which the penalty is death. Let Montana have him.
posted by Chimera at 1:13 PM
10 Comments:
"States, not the federal government, regulate crime down there, and they fix their own penalties."
That's true for the most part but the feds, like they seem to do with everything are getting deeper and deeper into that area.
Yeah, we got the same problem up here with our feds. They want to pay for less and less, but they want a say in more and more. Typical buttinskies.
So what do you think of this situation? Do you think that just because he's a Canadian citizen, Montana should either commute his sentence or send him back to Canada?
So let's say a Canadian journalist violates Islamic law and is imprisoned and tortured, because that's permitted in the country where the offense occurred. That's cool with you?
balbulican: we're not talking the guy shaved his beard or drank some wine, he tortured and murdered two men. If the Canadian (or American or whatever) journalist breaks the Islamic law against murder I sure wouldn't have any problems with that country keeping him/her.
Balb, I didn't say it was cool. It's the law in the country/state where the offense was committed. That law, and the consequences for breaking it, are not hidden -- they're in plain sight. There is no trickery here. He cannot claim he didn't know that murder was against Montana law, or that Montana has the death penalty.
This can't be equated with any other instance, though, because each case is unique. But in the case of journalists (or missionaries, or even plain shit disturbers) in Islamic countries, what is it about "don't go there" that people refuse to understand? We know that Islamic countries are authoritarian theocracies with no sense of humor or middle ground. Why do people insist on pushing the limits of what Muslims will tolerate on Muslim ground?
Being Canadian does not give anyone a free pass to commit crimes around the world and not have to pay the price in those countries whose laws they break.
Being Canadian does not give you a free pass to commit crimes anywhere. Plain and simple. Just because we have no justice system of our own... and that is working so well for us here isn't it. Why should we expect other countries to bow down to our low levels.
The infamous words of Baretta come to mind...(NOT ROBERT BLAKE!)
"You do the crime, you do the time"
There is no doubt he committed the crime. Not to mention he himself is the one that requested the death penalty in the first place! Be careful what you wish for...
Provided the country of origin WILL carry out a full sentence of whatever they have instead of the death penalty, I see no reason not to send them back to their country of origin. If one country objects to another country's laws where applied to their citizens, then let the country of origin pay for the incarceration of the criminal.
I alway laugh at the stony-eyed killers who, when caught & incarcerated, suddenly find Jesus. Fuck that. Shoulda found him earlier, bitch. Then maybe ya wouldn't have killed a buncha folks. Just too self-serving to suddenly have the "come-to-Jesus" moment after the fact. We had one here in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker, who was a junkie axe murderer. She handily became a "born-again" Christian in prison. There were protests & clamor to commute her sentence. It's one thing GWB actually did right. He declined to give her clemency. Of course, that was before he became Prez. He was actually a pretty damned good Gov. Who knew he'd suck so hard as Prez.
I will admit freely that there are some crimes that require retribution. No nonsense about rehabilitation. Put out their lights, so if the Supremes ever change the law AGAIN, we don't have any more like Kenneth McDuff, who we know killed at least 5 women after he was released from death row. It's likely the count is more like 9.
Now here's a good example of the "terrible swift sword". I can't believe anyone would hold an investigation over this.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/cops/judd.asp
Karen, thanks for all the links. Fascinating stuff...especially in the Judd story, where the cops were accused of having a "disregard for human life" for killing the guy who executed one of their deputies. That one being just a little over a year ago, I don't imagine the FBI has finished their investigation, yet. But as far as I'm concerned, when the scumbag took out the deputy like he did, he gave up all claim to being regarded as "human."
Now, you know I'm pro-police and all, but I was almost more pissed about the guy killing the police dog than anything else. The poor dog can't shoot back.
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