Personal Responsibility

The recent ruling in the Stanford swimmer rape case has people up in arms, and rightly so.  The decision to sentence the swimmer, Brock Turner, to six months has sparked outrage in various quarters.  As far as I'm concerned, it's an indefensible ruling.  Were this guy not who he is, it's unlikely his sentence would be so lenient.

The father's letter to the judge is being assailed as well, but I don't have a problem with it.  That is, I don't agree with what he wrote, but as the parent of a child, which I am not, I can understand wanting to protect one's son.  Had young Mr. Turner been my son, I would have handled it differently, but I can't criticize a parent trying to protect a child, no matter how bone-headed he sounds in doing so.

What's incomprehensible, however, is the judge's sentencing of the rapist.  From all accounts, the rapist Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster until he was interrupted by two passing bicyclists.  Allegedly, he's lied to the judge about his past use of alcohol and drugs.  Now he's blaming everything but himself, pointing the finger at a culture that promotes binge drinking and sexual promiscuity.

This kid is an elite athlete, apparently, and he must be something of a student, considering that Stanford isn't like most Division 1 programs that gives marginal students admission to their school because of their athletic prowess.  So he's accomplished and not dumb, but he is pampered and spoiled.  That isn't necessarily exceptional for a Stanford student; many of them fit that profile.  But combined with his other attributes, that makes Brock Turner a monster.

Yet he has the audacity to blame the surrounding culture for his crimes.  He takes virtually no responsibility for his actions.  It wasn't him, it was the alcohol.  It was peer pressure.  It was the sexually promiscuous times in which we live.  In short, the devil -- in the form of booze, porn, and pressure -- made him do it.  But don't blame him for it.

Then there's the case that stirred up passions a couple of years ago.  In 2013, Ethan Couch was sentenced to ten years probation for killing four pedestrians and injuring eleven while driving under the influence.  His defense that because he was raised in affluence, he couldn't understand the consequences of his actions.  He later was caught on video violating the terms of his probation, fled to Mexico, was apprehended and is now serving two years in jail.  But he's not serving time for his crime; he's serving time for having violated is probation.

What both cases share is a disdain for personal responsibility.  What's worse, society, in the form of the legal system, has eschewed personal responsibility in favor of new age touchy-feely remedies that don't assess culpability but explain away the crime by blaming it on amorphous ideas instead.  This is pure poppycock.  What both Turner and Couch need is a good fifteen years in jail and fifty years in jail -- respectively -- with no time off for good behavior, with no reduction in sentencing, so they can ponder the consequences of their actions.  If they want to ruminate on how the environment or their upbringing contributed to their circumstances, that's fine.  But actions should have certifiable consequences.

Troubling all the more is the racial component to this.  I'm critical of blacks who want to point the finger when discussing the penal system.  Those blacks in jail for heinous crimes largely deserve to be there.  But how is it that their circumstances don't warrant a reduction of their sentences?  If Turner and Couch can offload their troubles not on a tough life but on the absolute opposite of a tough life, how is it that poverty, crime, lack of opportunity and the like don't mitigate sentences for blacks?  If anything, I submit that Turner and Couch's crimes should warrant sentences more strict than those meted out to blacks especially because of their upbringing.  A life of luxury and opportunity does not allow someone to commit crimes with impunity.  That's not to suggest that blacks committing similar crimes shouldn't be in jail; they should.  But these white thugs deserve every bit as much jail time as blacks who commit the same crimes, if not more.

I'm appalled at the justice system and my profession.  Equal Justice Under the Law isn't supposed to be a catchy phrase.  It is to attorneys what Do No Harm is to the medical profession.

There needs to be a return to original values, both in society and in the law.

I fear that isn't going to happen.

(c) 2016 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles