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Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A momentary lapse of reason
Forget the context of this article -- many arguments can be had on the broader issues of sentencing -- but consider just this one sentence:
The manner in which the deceased was raped may be brutal but it could have been a momentary lapse on the part of appellant, seeing a lonely girl at a secluded place.This is from a Supreme Court judge, and he's speaking about the rape (and subsequent death) of an eight-year-old girl. And that 'but' in the middle of the sentence makes me furious. Call it contempt of court, but if the judge who uttered these words appeared in front of me, I would be sorely tempted to inflict physical violence on him. I could argue later that it was a momentary lapse of reason. "I didn't mean to cut your tongue off, your honour," I could say, "but seeing a lonely judge at a secluded place..."
