Sorry Excuse

Two brothers convicted of drug-dealing in Britain received a suspended sentence by the judge, Beverley Lunt, after expressing contrition in court but then had their sentence reimposed after mocking the judge on Facebook. Dalrymple has much to say about this, starting with: How could Judge Lunt have been so naive?

Contrition in the context of criminal justice is in any case of doubtful significance or value. It is good, of course, that people should be contrite about their ill deeds (criminal or not), but public expressions of contrition are another thing entirely. They are all too easy and where there is an obvious tangible benefit to making them they are worthless as a guide to a person’s real state of feeling. You would have thought that nobody who had reached Beverley Lunt’s age would fail to understand this.

Read the whole piece here

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