A legal outcome observed | |
Joe Cinque's consolation. A true story of death, grief and the law. Helen Garner. Sydney: Picador, 2004 (328 pp). ISBN 0 330 36497 9. |
IN 1997 A YOUNG WOMAN
gave her boyfriend a large dose of Rohypnol and heroin. As a result she is now a graduate in law with a special interest in criminology, and he is dead. She was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The usual complex arithmetic surrounding sentencing set her free less than three years after being sentenced. The circumstances of the killing were complex and bizarre and the author has examined them carefully. It occurred in a maelstrom of late-adolescent turmoil, drug taking and disturbed group processes, filled with denial. If you wish to discover the details buy the book — it is very good value. Garner questions the legal processes which can produce such a result, as well as curiosities such as the preventing of the two Crown psychiatrists from examining the defendant. The law is imperfect but getting better. At the beginning of the 19th century there were more than 220 statutes containing the death penalty, and judicial interpretation had expanded the list to more than 350 capital offences. Children were hanged with some frequency, on one occasion 10 in a row. Not until the Criminal Evidence Act of 1898 were accused persons permitted to give evidence in their own defence. Most improvements were made in the teeth of firm legal opposition. One must keep up the pressure and Helen Garner is doing this here. Is such an outcome morally wrong? Morality is a system of approvals: there will be as many moralities as there are groupings in society. There is no empirical way of establishing which is to be preferred. Those who argue that morality must be founded on religious beliefs should remember that until relatively recently the Christian church thought it morally right to burn alive those who did not believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe and was orbited by the sun. The best we can do is to examine every proposition put to us and this thoughtful book does just that. John H T Ellard
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