Re: The Death Penalty. Do/would you support it?
Heres another kill get out-kill again story...you know being a copper having to knock on a strangers door to tell them their daughter has been shot is a very tough gig,also finally telling them the person has done it before would be horrible(my 17 year old girl has her heart set on being a copper)..tragic..
The death sentence may well be barbaric to some but go tell that to the parents of anita cobby & janine balding...tb
Transcript
[SIZE=-2]13/8/1999[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Diminished responsibility in murder cases[/SIZE]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]KERRY O'BRIEN: A murder case in Queensland has ignited debate over the controversial legal defence known as "diminished responsibility". Under diminished responsibility, the judge, in sentencing, takes into account the circumstances that may have helped provoke the crime.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Using this defence successfully in 1991, Les Brown was found guilty of manslaughter in Queensland instead of murder after viciously stabbing his first wife to death. Six years later, shortly after his release from jail on parole, Brown strangled his second wife. Some legal authorities and families of victims are now calling for urgent changes to the manner in which diminished responsibility has been applied.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Genevieve Hussey reports.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PHIL CLEARY, FORMER INDEPENDENT MP: Well, there's a great history in the criminal justice system of women being killed by the men in their lives -- the men running provocation, diminished responsibility, "I was depressed" lines and being found guilty only of manslaughter, and often because judges allow these kinds of cases to be run.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: A court case in Queensland is fanning a heated debate about the use of a legal defence known as "diminished responsibility".[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Criminal lawyers argue it's not easy to win, but perfectly valid.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MICHAEL QUINN, CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION: It would be one of the most diff icult defences to run in a court. You've got to satisfy a jury, who are naturally sceptical of psychiatric evidence. And no, it's not run every day.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Every now and then it's run. In 1992, Les Brown was imprisoned for stabbing his wife of 23 years, Denise, to death. He'd had a history of suicide attempts and claimed he'd lost control due to a temporary abnormality of mind.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LES BROWN, 'FOUR CORNERS', ABC-TV, 1993: I still can't remember, you know, stabbing Denise. I remembered I had a broom, and then I reached for the dustpan and dustbroom and then we were arguing over that.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Denise was saying things like, "I've done that, I can clean it up. You don't have to clean it up, get out of the way," and that's the end of it then. I thought that WAS the end of it, you know, that we'd just argued over a broom. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But no, she'd died.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]JOURNALIST: Did you ever intend to do it?[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LES BROWN: No, I never intended to do it at all.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Seven psychiatrists gave evidence. In this case, Brown's defence of diminished responsibility was successful and resulted in the charge being reduced from murder to manslaughter.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Les Brown was sentenced to eight years. Psychological evidence said there was little risk of Brown repeating his actions.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LES BROWN: And I won't make any excuses for why I did it, because I honestly don't know.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Three years later, Les Brown met his second wife, Doreen, when she went to visit her first husband in prison. They married. After serving a total of five years, Les Brown was released on parole. Doreen's children were frightened of Les Brown.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]TERRY SCOTT, VICTIM'S SON: Look, we'd be going to work and he'd say, "I had an argument with your mother today. I've killed before, I'll kill again."[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Doreen made calls to Corrective Services, concerned about his behaviour. In October 1997, just 10 months after he'd been released from prison and while still on parole, Les Brown strangled Doreen. The Victims of Crime Association says more should have been done to protect her.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]LYNNE HOLDEN, VICTIMS OF CRIME ASSOCIATION: This man obviously had not addressed the issues of a nger management, because now, we have the loss of another life.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It's very frightening to see this trend that Corrective Services tends to push these people, these very serious offenders, back out into the community with no support structures.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: The Corrective Services Department won't discuss individual cases.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]They say department officers follow the orders of the courts, but they argue you can't always predict human behaviour.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ANGELA MUSUMICI, QLD DEPT OF CORRECTIVE SERVICES: You look for signs, you look for indicators. In most cases, when something happens that you're not aware of, it's because the change, the stressor has occurred very quickly and they've reacted to it very quickly.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: However, some lawyers think it's time to look at whether the diminished responsibility defence is being misused. They argue there should be more emphasis on any prior history of domestically violent behaviour.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ZOE RATHUS, WOMEN'S LEGAL SERVICES: What it means is that violent men who have a habit of being violent to their partners and to their children can raise defences like diminished responsibility or provocation and have murder reduced to manslaughter -- as if that act of violence which led to the death was aberrant, was abnormal, was something out of character for them. Whereas in fact, it's just the end of a continuum of violence.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Former Independent MP Phil Cleary, whose sister was killed in a violent attack, argues the defence allows the legal system to favour men.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PHIL CLEARY: We've got to be sympathetic and we've got to understand human frailty, but the problem is we're very respectful of alleged male human frailty in relationships, but we're not respectful of the position and the rights of women.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: But criminal lawyers warn against turning the issue into a gender dogfight.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MICHAEL QUINN: I have defended a number of women on murder charges who have murdered their partners, and they have been found not guilty of murder by the defence of diminished responsibility.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It should never become a gender issue -- it's a defence that's open to both male and female, and I think it's really unhelpful to any reasonable debate to reduce it to a gender issue.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: Both a Federal committee and a Queensland task force are looking at whether there should be changes to the laws surrounding diminished responsibility and provocation.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]JOCELYN SCUTT, BARRISTER: It is important that we do review provocation , self-defence and diminished responsibility and make sure that they are operating fairly in relation to all people within the community -- and I mean 'fairly' in terms of those who are potentially possible victims of killings, as well as fairly to those who may kill.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GENEVIEVE HUSSEY: After being convicted of this second killing, Les Brown has now been sentenced to life, which carries a non-parole period of 15 years.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]TERRY SCOTT: It's about time, isn't it? I'm stoked, and I think the rest of the family will be happy, too.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yeah -- in the end, justice has been done. Thank God for that.[/FONT][/SIZE]