{"id":3156867,"date":"2008-05-27T08:50:38","date_gmt":"2008-05-27T01:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/?p=3156867"},"modified":"2023-04-13T05:17:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T05:17:52","slug":"defending-a-criminal-is-not-defending-the-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/2008\/05\/27\/defending-a-criminal-is-not-defending-the-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending a Criminal is not Defending the Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Asieh Amini<\/strong><\/a> (IRAN)<\/font>
<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


\nOne of the most unpleasant questions that I have had to face when working on juvenile \u200ecriminal cases where the defendant is on the death row has been this: \u201cPut yourself in the \u200eshoes of the parents of the victim\u2019s child. How would you feel? What would you request \u200efor the murderer? Etc<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is both a tough and an unreasonable question. It is tough because putting anybody in \u200ethe place of a parent who has lost his\/her child is difficult, if not impossible. It is a bad \u200equestion because those who work in the field of human rights or the law are not supposed \u200eto put themselves under conditions that the survivors of victims face, because under those \u200ecircumstances one cannot make a good rational decision. Nevertheless, even if we are put \u200eunder those conditions, we must foremost strive for real justice rather than try to respond \u200eto our instincts for vengeance.<\/p>\n

Measures to support respect for justice, even in a murder case, protect basic human rights \u200efor everyone in the community. When the rights of a person who has nobody to support \u200ehim are upheld, then those for individuals who have better resources too will be \u200erespected. Therefore, to assert that defending the rights of a criminal means defending the \u200ecrime is unreasonable and not true. It is clear that no person who works in the field of \u200ehuman rights would claim that a murderer be free without any punishment. What he \u200estrives for is that the process that should bring about the appropriate justice is fair, \u200eunbiased and under control by monitoring bodies, and furthermore, ensure that the kind \u200eof justice that is passed on to juveniles who break the law in their early youth and who \u200emostly end up in prison or face execution because of unpredictable events are fair and \u200eproportionate. \u200e<\/p>\n

My experience has shown that execution is as bad for the government as it is a social \u200ephenomena. Just as we must strive to have more humane laws, we must also replace the \u200epunishments that have been codified through public culture.\u200e<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that violence breeds violence and that the health and sanity of a \u200esociety are more important than the yearnings of the victims (whose rights must \u200eundoubtedly be fulfilled through appropriate reprimands in proportion to the crime), one \u200ecan cite tens of instances in which executions around the world have not brought safety \u200eand public peace to the community. Statistics do not even support a lowering of crime in \u200eproportion to harsher punishments.\u200e<\/p>\n

Contrary to the views of those who believe that defending a juvenile criminal who is \u200econdemned to death is irrational, justice-seeking reasoning and opposition to executions \u200eexist rather than being an emotional response, are there so that the crime and its causes \u200eare contemplated more fully in an effort to prevent the crime.\u200e<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asieh Amini<\/strong><\/a> (IRAN)<\/font>
<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


\nOne of the most unpleasant questions that I have had to face when working on juvenile \u200ecriminal cases where the defendant is on the death row has been this: \u201cPut yourself in the \u200eshoes of the parents of the victim\u2019s child. How would you feel? What would you request \u200efor the murderer? Etc<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is both a tough and an unreasonable question. It is tough because putting anybody in \u200ethe place of a parent who has lost his\/her child is difficult, if not impossible. It is a bad \u200equestion because those who work in the field of human rights or the law are not supposed \u200eto put themselves under conditions that the survivors of victims face, because under those \u200ecircumstances one cannot make a good rational decision. Nevertheless, even if we are put \u200eunder those conditions, we must foremost strive for real justice rather than try to respond \u200eto our instincts for vengeance.<\/p>\n

Measures to support respect for justice, even in a murder case, protect basic human rights \u200efor everyone in the community. When the rights of a person who has nobody to support \u200ehim are upheld, then those for individuals who have better resources too will be \u200erespected. Therefore, to assert that defending the rights of a criminal means defending the \u200ecrime is unreasonable and not true. It is clear that no person who works in the field of \u200ehuman rights would claim that a murderer be free without any punishment. What he \u200estrives for is that the process that should bring about the appropriate justice is fair, \u200eunbiased and under control by monitoring bodies, and furthermore, ensure that the kind \u200eof justice that is passed on to juveniles who break the law in their early youth and who \u200emostly end up in prison or face execution because of unpredictable events are fair and \u200eproportionate. \u200e<\/p>\n

My experience has shown that execution is as bad for the government as it is a social \u200ephenomena. Just as we must strive to have more humane laws, we must also replace the \u200epunishments that have been codified through public culture.\u200e<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that violence breeds violence and that the health and sanity of a \u200esociety are more important than the yearnings of the victims (whose rights must \u200eundoubtedly be fulfilled through appropriate reprimands in proportion to the crime), one \u200ecan cite tens of instances in which executions around the world have not brought safety \u200eand public peace to the community. Statistics do not even support a lowering of crime in \u200eproportion to harsher punishments.\u200e<\/p>\n

Contrary to the views of those who believe that defending a juvenile criminal who is \u200econdemned to death is irrational, justice-seeking reasoning and opposition to executions \u200eexist rather than being an emotional response, are there so that the crime and its causes \u200eare contemplated more fully in an effort to prevent the crime.\u200e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3156867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5195908,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156867\/revisions\/5195908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stopchildexecutions.com\/scenewsarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}