Re: UPDATE ON MATT DEATHERAGE

[dlyons@netcom.com (David A. Lyons)]

In article <1994Jun17.190532.51287@slate.mines.colorado.edu> aknudsen@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Knudsen) writes:
>Who cares if he is a "nice-guy". What he did is *SICK* and *WRONG*, and
>should therefore be punished. This is of course if he is/was found guilty
>by our system of due process.

If you will read the first five lines of info in the first post of this
thread, you'll see that Matt entered a no-contest plea.  Legal guilt is
not at issue here.  I hope your awareness of the events you are judging
is better than I would guess from your message.

I have seen no one suggest that he should not be punished.  In fact, he
has been locked up continuously since March 23; has incurred substantial
legal fees; has received much publicity, some of which is fair and based
in fact, and some of which is not; and has suffered several indirect
consequences of the above.

Sentence is due to be handed down on June 28, and the judge has a lot of
flexibility in sentencing.  In my opinion, character letters serve a useful
purpose, not in convincing the judge "he's a nice guy" or "he's a jerk,"
but in helping him form an accurate opinion of to what degree a crime was
an isolated mistake in an offender's life, and to what degree an offender
participates constructively in society.

I think it's a good thing for judges to have that flexibility, and I hope
that I don't change my mind at the end of the month.

-- 
Dave Lyons
Mr Tangent

On the net, I act as a private individual.