Well, there seem to be really great differences in criminal laws in different coutries: 'murder' is the only case in Germany, where you definately get livelong (or 10 years as a junevile).
And you omly can get probation for all up to two years prison.
(I've worked as a probation officer and studied law.)
Onyxelle: We don't know the whole story of either of these cases: that's why we were guessing at possible explanations. But then that was my point: we don't know all the details. In general, whenever I hear of some "outrageous" verdict or sentence, I know enough to suspect that there's something else going on that hasn't been divulged and that would explain the result.
Walter: In Germany a defendant can get probation if he ate someone else!
He got eight years - no probation!
This is wild to me. I don't know enough, of course, in layers of not knowing enough. First of all, I am not an attorney. Second, I wasn't there at the trial, or in any pleading situations. Third (or maybe first), I wasn't there at the homicides. Off the top of my head it looks horrible, I really see your point.
I presume the Haitian woman had an appointed defense attorney? Any chance of appeal?
Onyxelle, one day you're going to be a writer, whether that's your dream or not. You're a thoughtful observer, with emotional reactions to what you see, but you also question those. Keep it up....
Oyxnelle - Where is it that you live that there would be two on-going murder cases with zero press coverage???
i live in orlando, and it just happened that those are not the 'biggest' most edia hyped cases here at this time. They were proably in the news when they happened, but they're not anymore. right now the media is more focussed on the various judges being in the news as well as the many child abduction & molestation cases that are popping up over here. also, when I say ;not in the news" i mean they're not the big front page stories. if they were in the paper, they're in the middle of the back page of the 'local' section.
osso: thanks, the hatian woman did have a public defender for her trial (very good attorney) and now she has a private atty. I do not know if the pvt atty is retained or court apointed (for her appeal) here, pvt atty's have contracts with the courts that allow them to be appointed to cases just as the public defender is.
