“A sentence to punishment for punishment’s sake is a valid reasoning for sentencing.”
Yes it is, in some cases it is not needed. These are usually ugly cases with no intent by the parent. If the parent was willfully neglectful then I could see jail time.
If its a case of stupid I don’t see how 5 years in jail time is worse punishment than the loss of a child. Not to mention the cost of keeping this person in jail for those 5 years.
BTW, would you want to be the person picking which rapist, murderer or drug dealer to let out of jail so you have room for this woman?
No, but that's because I'm not the one who insists that punishment must include jail/prison time. There are all other forms of punishment, to include no punishment other than the conviction itself for negligent homicide. So I don't see a conflict in wanting a legal determination of guilt for negligence and punishment that does not include jail/prison time.
Here are some other cases I know about:
1. A man is unloading a rifle in his basement. The rifle goes off and kills his daughter in the room above.
2. A man firing an AK-47 at a shooting range misses the target high and the bullet kills a child in a pool at an amusement park a mile away.
3. A man is flying an aircraft, the engine quits, the plane crashes and kills a passenger.
I can prove negligence in all cases even though these were accidents. But there was no intent at all in any case.
I know of another case where a mother left her kids in the car in order to smoke crack. She lost track of time and two of the kids died. I can prove intent to neglect in that case. She knew she was leaving them in the car.
I would completely agree with you on this, but, unfortunately, "willful neglect" is a legal determination, one that can only be ascertained through legal proceedings. That is the case for most cases involving an "intent" element. Anything else, any non-judicial determination of intent, is just your best guess and "gut feeling" and nothing more.
If I wanted to get rid of my child .. in much the same manner as other parents who have murdered their children .. I guess the safest way is to put them in a car seat and leave them in the sun .. and put on a shocked and tearful face for the camera.
To make these determinations is what a trial is for. If you feel comfortable in asserting that no parent would kill their child in this manner, then you can be so comforted. I, on the other hand, am not.
I actually know a woman that killed her own child.
The kid ran behind her car while she was backing out of the driveway. There was no finding of negligence. That’s the difference. Here, they’re covering it up.
And quit with the rapist, murder, drug, (pedophile, Nazi, et al) argument. This has NOTHING to do with that and you know it.