Richard Cohen: Nixzmary's Law isn't the answer (Harsh mandatory sentences are not a deterrance)

NY Daily News ^ | January 23, 2006 | Richard Cohen

[Puppage]

A doctor examined her

And, didn't SAY A FRIG'N THING!Not ONE WORD!

[msnimje]

The heck with 25 years, shot them within 1 hour of conviction.

[msnimje]

oops shot = shoot

[JeeperFreeper]

Cohen is simply wrong. A pervert or child abuser in prison for life will never again abuse a kid. That's enough deterrent right there to ensure passage of the increase in sentencing.

[pogo101]

Cohen should test his "not a deterrent" theory by proposing a compromise: Let the current law remain in effect for killings occurring on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. A less-harsh penalty will apply for killings on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. If there's really NO deterrence, none at all, we won't see any difference after the amendment, will we?

[Enchante]

"It seems some people go into politics just before they go totally brain dead."

What's even more certain, Mr. Cohen, is that most liberal journalists were "brain dead" even before they went into journalism....

[binkdeville]

There is also the point of PUNISHMENT that this idiot( and many many others ) fails to acknowledge .

[auboy]

Released to a hungry wolf pack within an hour of conviction. Way too quick a death, but environmentally friendly.

[Restorer]

The author is correct that this change won't deter many killers.

But that doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea.

[Restorer]

What really needs to be done is boringly bureaucratic, achingly administrative - a winching of the system so it is taut, closing the cracks through which Nixzmary slipped and was lost forever. Politicians know this, but it is easy to propose stupid laws and difficult to improve a system. There's votes and acclaim in the former, little of either in the latter.

Bears repeating.

[trebb]

What a twit the author is! Using his reasoning, no punishment should be administered because the threat of punishment doesn't deter the perps. Just do away with all laws and prisons and let the bad guys run rampant.

Hmmm, sounds almost like the Dims' and MSM's take on how we ought to not fight the WOT.

[presidio9]

Bears repeating.

No it doesn't. It's stating the obvious. Fixing the o-rings won't bring the crew of the Challenger back either. It's still worth doing.

[Sopater]

To hell with whether or not its a deterent, will it get dangerous criminals off the street for good so that the rest of the population can sleep a little better at night? If so then, I say... lock 'em up and/or shoot 'em.

[presidio9]

Using his reasoning, no punishment should be administered because the threat of punishment doesn't deter the perps. Just do away with all laws and prisons and let the bad guys run rampant.

Actually this is the central premise behind the "legalize drugs" campaign.

[oceanview]

well, his point about "tightening up the system administratively" translates into - child protection services is going to take kids away on a hair trigger. of course in the case of this poor girl, it would have been the right thing to do. But several years ago in NYC, the unthinkable happened in reverse - a child taken away from a mother, was killed by her foster mother and grandmother. imagine that horror, your parental right is taken away, and your child is removed and placed into the hands of foster parents who kill her.

my point is simply, there is a dangerous line here, its easy to say "take the kids away faster" - but we all know government is messed up, and will make many mistakes implementing such a policy, and some of those will also have deadly results.

if NY had a death penalty, this would be the time to use it.

[chae]

I once heard the attorney general of MO say this in regards to the death penalty: "You don't kill a mad dog as a warning to other mad dogs. You do it so they can't hurt anyone else."

[RedRover]

You're exactly right. Banishment, forcing a criminal to leave a society, is the second oldest form of punishment known to civilization.

[najida]

Isn't justice for the victim important also?

[IGOTMINE]

DING DING DING DING!

I remember a Wizard of Id cartoon from years ago. The king had just senteneced a man to death. The man's last words to the king were, "Capital punishment doesn't deter crime." The king responded, "I'll believe that when I see you again."