Six years in jail seems highly unreasonable for crashing your car. Unless we’re content for society to have the moral understanding of a five-year-old, the judicial system should be about intentions rather than outcomes.
In a similar vein, I’m still slightly ashamed of myself for not following through on my plans to set up a ‘free Gary Hart’ campaign.
I think the sentence was so harsh because he failed to fulfil his responsibility to (a) report the accident to the police and (b) stay at the scene of the accident.
Well, there is the utilitarian argument that increased penalties for drivers who display incompetence will encourage other drivers not to do so. I don’t know if there’s any evidence that this theory works.
Oh, that argument.
So if I get pissed and run about with a machete and someone’s daft enough to get sliced in half, I shouldn’t get penalised?
So, your honour, is this because:
a) I didn’t *intend* to hurt anyone, I just wanted to wave my machete around while drunk or
b) I knew the risks but didn’t intend to hurt anyone in particular – I didn’t know who, so it doesn’t matter or
c) It’s different because it’s a car and you know, it’s different in cars?
(Gary Hart should have hanged, by the way)
Well, one of the three. There’s nothing inconsistent in saying that we should have exemplary, deterrent punishment for some offences and retributive punishment for others. There might simply be some utilitarian argument that tells you where the deterrent is effective. As I say, I am not aware of any useful evidence on this point, but it might be possible to assemble some.
Unless we’re content for society to have the moral understanding of a five-year-old, the judicial system should be about intentions rather than outcomes.
Indeed – and we have two clear intentions on display here: he intended to drive his car while under the influence of alcohol, and he intended to flee the scene of the accident in a thankfully failed attempt to save his skin and career.
Are you saying these should be deemed irrelevant when apportioning blame – in other words, that there should be no practical difference between accidental deaths caused through genuine accidents or through contributory negligence?
I’ve always felt that the simple answer (though no politician would touch it) would be that if a driver was uninsured, or in contravention of the terms of their insurance (eg. pissed), then the car should just be regarded in law as a lethal weapon, and penalties assessed the same as if it was an unlicensed assault rifle or something.
I’m convinced by Pete and Michael here – while Gary Hart was unfairly scapegoated, Lee Hughes probably did deserve it. Suggestions of unfairness duly retracted.
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