www.SpecialX.Net

[suityou316]

Don't know about other countries but I have been told by 2 British legal professionals that admitting guilt in England (nearly said Britain but Scotland has a different law system) almost always guarantees your sentence will be reduced by half.
Fritzl only changed his Not Guilty pleas to Guilty after the video testimony of his daughter was shown. The media mainly said that it must have made it dawn on him what he had done was wrong, but I would guess that his lawyer realised that the testimony was such that he had hardly any chance of being found Not Guilty of those charges after it and advised him to change his plea to help reduce his sentence.
I presume him being held in a mental institution is due to psyche docs having examined him over the time he has been imprisoned awaiting trial.
I agree that a 15 year minimum for parole seems ludicrous compared with the 24 years he held his daughter prisoner for, but lifers in the UK seem to get parole sooner than that.
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Typing teh instead of the since 1972

[Slade]

d.t.,

When I plot a novel, I don't start with the crime and work back to what kind of killer would do this. I start with the killer and work forward to what kind of crime would this killer commit. Why? Because that's how it works in real life.

Likewise, you can't look at the crime committed and work back to what should happen to the person who committed it. That's "eye for an eye," a limbic system reaction. It's common to all of us, but we must get past it to cortex thinking.

Mental illness is as much a disease as pneumonia or AIDS. I learned that in spades as a lawyer. Most mental illnesses don't excuse crimes. And we all know the psychiatric profession is open to human abuse. Quacks in white smocks.

The bus headhunter in Canada was clearly psychotic. The Crown doesn't lead that evidence unless it's overwhelming.

The Austrian system is different from ours. They don't seem to separate forensic hospitals from prisons, but incorporate the former as a unit in the latter. That gives them latitude to combine psychotics and psychopaths - which Fritzl clearly is - in the same institution.

As for plea bargaining, that's a separate ill born of overcrowded court dockets. It's a sanctioned way to deal with cases without the time and cost of trials.

Didn't your Court of Appeal just overturn the conviction of a man jailed wrongly for three decades? That's another abuse. The "hang 'em high" syndrome.

What it all boils down to is what everything boils down to. Law, medicine, politics, and running the Underground. The quality of people involved in each run.

Slade

[dreab trawets]

interestiing to see your view boss, thank you. And an insight into how you plot our mutually interesting persons in the book.
The guy in britain, at the time pleaded guilty at first, and had knowledge of the crime scene. Only at trial did he change his plea, and in depth forensics / dna wasn't around then so i could understand how the police / jury came to their decision.

I wonder how many others will crop up.
The austrian case touched a nerve because it was for so long. And anybody who claims they are two sandwiches short of a picnic must be sane ish to keep it going for that long. Three of his children even lived upstairs with him and his wife, he said they were dumped on the doorstep by the daughter who had joined a cult. That shows reasoning and coherent thought in my view.

He will probably use the mentally scarred after spending his formative years under the nazi rule, get out clause.

Talking of serial killers, i wonder, with everything going on in the world how you will grab our attention in #14. One of the main things about your books, is the killers abiility to shock the reader. Looking back at my favourites, Ghoul, Headhunter and Ripper, the killers insatiability? for commiting what they did was what drew me in. And the story and details kept me hooked. And how do they get round forensics and ViCAP now . Mephisto better be damn careful this time, new face or not.
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Nicholas Angel: With respect, sir, you can't just make people disappear.
Chief Inspector: Yes I can, I'm the Chief Inspector.

Hot Fuzz

[i.am.sladist]

pardon my vulgarity but ...
HOW FUCKED UP IS AMERICA???

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mills-256103-vanessa-ohio.html

Only in America would the courts take a two year old girl away from the only (adoptive) mother she knows and give her to her 'birth' father for the reason that he's the biological father ....
who has four other kids that he's not involved with ...
and has served time for abusing the childs birth mother ...
but hey, this is America, it's all about being politically correct.
And the sad thing is there are judges who will give this child to that man.
Makes me sick to my stomach.
_________________
I am Evil.
I am Woman.
I am Sladist.

[Judy]

[i.am.sladist]

Seriously, not to put down daddy's in any way, I know men that are wonderful fathers. But there is a unique bond between mother and child. As a women we carry that child fro nine months, through morning sickness, and leg cramps, and desires to eat weird food ... don't get me started on those God awful Prenate Vitamins ... BLAH! We give birth to that child, we feed that child ...
It just isn't the same for fathers. At least I don't see how it is. If I am wrong, please correct me. I'm not saying that bond isn't there, it just isn't the same.
_________________
I am Evil.
I am Woman.
I am Sladist.

[MarylandManson]

It seems likely that the adoptive mother in this case did not achieve complete closure of the legal adoption process. When I looked into adoption, a counselor stressed the importance--nay the essential requirement--of ensuring legal closure before forging a relationship with an adopted child. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances, not revealed in the article above, that made legal closure difficult.

Although there is clearly a unique bond between a biological mother and child, who have been physically linked for nine months, there's less bioethical basis on which to say that an adoptive mother has a unique bond that supersedes the relationship between child and father, be he biological or adoptive.

Cheers! MM

[Slade]

There's an essential point here for all Boarders to note.

Make sure your legal affairs are in order.

If you don't have a will - note the Stieg Larsson affair - the law will step in and settle the matter for you according to preset rules.

That applies in every area of human endeavor, and "ignorance of the law" is no excuse.

Slade

[CraftyGal]

We had a horrible time of it when my step dad passed away. He had no will or how he wanted things to proceed once he passed on. Make sure everything is in order! It makes life so much easier for the ones left behind.

Craftygal