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noteveryagain t1_isxnxru wrote

Reply to comment by Key_Environment8179 in 'Superfly' actor Kaalan Walker sentenced to 50 years in prison for sexual assault by BusbyBusby

Who’s doing that? People should be punished for violent crimes when they forever alter a person’s trajectory because of said crimes. There’s no revenge about it.

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Key_Environment8179 t1_isxpiq0 wrote

Punished, yes, but life in prison for one count of rape? That’s just retaliatory with no utility whatsoever. Locking them away for life and making them suffer like the victim did isn’t going to undo the damage they caused. The proper sentence should be enough to deter the violent conduct and rehabilitate the offender. It’s unlawful in this country for judges to sentence convicts beyond what is necessary to achieve those two goals, and for good reason. This particular guy probably needed 50 years, but such a long sentence would be patently absurd for just one count of any violent crime short of 1st degree murder.

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noteveryagain t1_isyap6t wrote

Tell that to the victim. The reason they make rape a lesser sentence is because a rapist is more likely to kill the victim if the penalty is the same as for murder. It’s strategic, not necessarily correct.

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Person_756335846 t1_it00wka wrote

As a personal matter, I think that the string of decisions in the US limiting the maximum sentences for rape are obviously wrong and should be overturned asap.

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Key_Environment8179 t1_it05cl8 wrote

Can you cite one? The only one that comes to mind was the one from 2008 that said you can’t get the death penalty.

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Person_756335846 t1_it06q5n wrote

Coker v Georgia and Kennedy v Louisiana, as explained in US v Briggs.

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Key_Environment8179 t1_it07e7n wrote

So you believe people should be executed for rape. Make the punishment worse than the crime. What the actual fuck I would bet everything I own that those cases will never be overturned

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Person_756335846 t1_it08jb7 wrote

There are a lot of procedural protections for defendants already. A jury of their peers has to vote unanimiously that aggregating factors outweigh mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt, with every aggravating factor needing proof beyond a reasonable doubt and each motivating factor requiring only a modest amount of evidence to prove.

The only serious argument against this is that the trial process for rape is too open to abuse, which is the same for murder… either way if that’s the case rape should at least be punishable with LWOP to allow exoneration if that happens.

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