'The Girl in Question'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Where growing up under the Holocaust should probably be a factor in determining the punishment but not a complete defense.
I don't understand how this is a factor. Do formerly abused children, for example, who grow up to be serial killers or rapists get that factored in? When it comes to their punishment?
But letting the victim control whether to prosecute or not sets a bad precedent.
There's a reason, after all, that Polanski himself wasn't allowed to determine whether or not Charlie Manson should be prosecuted, and/or determine Manson's sentence.
IJS.
Do formerly abused children, for example, who grow up to be serial killers or rapists get that factored in? When it comes to their punishment?
Both mitigating and aggravating factors are often introduced at sentencing. (I don't know what the California rules are, specifically.)
Both mitigating and aggravating factors are often introduced at sentencing. (I don't know what the California rules are, specifically.)
Okay then. I still don't see how surviving the Holocaust makes raping a child okay, though.
I could see it as a mitigating factor for him running away. Not really for the original crime unless the argument is that his judgment is just fucked up over all.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say that a Holocaust survivor might have a pathologically different view of jailtime than your average man on the street, and that his experiences there, at least in part, were what prompted him to flee the country. It's not an excuse but it is a factor.
(In the flight charges ONLY, not the rape, which is a separate case.)
What Sparky said. The argument I've heard is that he lived so long under arbitrary governments that, when some question came up whether the judge would increase the punishment, he ran because he assumed it was another arbitrary action.
It certainly isn't enough to give him a pass. And not something to make a huge difference in the punishment. But something that, if I were a judge, I'd want to add into the mix.
And yes, it's only on the flight issue. Not the child rape issue. Apologies for not being clearer on that point.
he ran because he assumed it was another arbitrary action.
Yeah, he should have thought a little bit harder about that before he drugged and anally raped a 13-year-old girl.
Personally, I think he should have thought a little bit harder about the fact that, if Charles Manson hadn't happened along, he'd have had an 8-year-old child of his own when all that happened.
Yeah, he should have thought a little bit harder about that before he drugged and anally raped a 13-year-old girl.
I think I made it pretty clear that I didn't think there were any mitigating factors in the rape charge.
Fleeing the country is a separate crime.