h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A bit gruesome this.

"Majid Movahedi has been sentenced to be blinded in both eyes with acid. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence at the beginning of February. On 11 March, a judge in the Office for the Implementation of Sentences spoke about the case, raising fears that the punishment could be carried out any time now. The Head of the Judiciary has the power to order a halt to the implementation of the sentence.

On 3 November 2004 Majid Movahedi poured a bucket of acid on Ameneh Bahrami's head as she was leaving work, after she had rejected his marriage proposal several times."

The sentence was due to be carried out on 15th April 2009, but there seems to be no indication as to whether it was or not. His victim insisted that she wanted this to be the punishment, and that she wanted to administer it herself. The question is, did it happen?





http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7754756.stm

http://www.hubdub.com/m33126/Iranian_Justice__Her_name_is_Ameneh_Bahrami_and_she_wants_an_eye_for_an_eye_Will_it_happen

Let's hope it goes ahead!

I cant say I support it, but I cant say I wouldn't want to do it if I was the victim either... Tricky principle and moral point this one...

maybe we should be more like the iranians..... if it would help reduce crime

It wouldn't.

It would just result in generations-long feuds where nobody can remember who did what to who first and everybody thinks they are owed more justice than they got.

*shudder*

What a horrible world to live in.

A horrible world indeed

but it seems from the article that the options were that or blood money

What amount of money (and I guess the guy doesn't have illimited resources either) could compensate for that?

In a completely different way, blood money is pretty awful too

maybe,But do you not think it would act as a deterant ?

As mentioned earlier these things tend to escalate. Though in this case revenge was sought through the courts, which will help.

No stu, I dont. If it was then centuries of this type of law would have resulted in none of them being required any more, surely?

Nope, it doesn't work.

Deterrents don't work.

Addressing the background issues could work but it's hard to do, even harder to do well and tends to require self awareness and openness on the part of the civilian as well as a general attitude of being willing to try and be good people from everyone.

Weren´t Vlad Tepes cruel punishments rather good at keeping Wallachia free of crime?

Do you really think that a person who can pour acid on someone else really cares whether or not they might get caught and punished?

The inhumanity and breathtaking arrogance of the act smacks of a)massive cultural imbalance and b) massive personal imbalance.

So. What do you do? Treat the symptom or the cause? Which is more likely to stop a recurrence of the problem?

I do think some people won´t care or be too short sighted. There´s probably plenty of others who are kept from commiting crime because of the deterrent of prison.

If you're easily deterred, you dont need such barbaric acts to be committed in cold blood and in the name of justice (imo revenge has no place in justice).

If you're not easily deterred then it'll probably make no difference.

Making sure that everybody is educated and empowered to talk about problems and respect other people's choices will mean that when these problems come up, they are pretty hardcore cases of personality imbalance which can then be treated appropriately.

What íf you´re averagely deterred?

lol

I'm not suggesting that some form of penal system isn't necessary Xan... I just dont think that we deal appropriately with serious offenders (i.e. our care for those who are obviously not OK is not only pitiful but when invoked is often seen as a lenient option) and we dont do enough on a social level to try and make sure those who could be helped earlier (like, before these things even become a viable option) are helped.

i just get so wound up seein people get off lightly for breakin the law, that it would be nice to see harsh justice every once in a while,instead of people bein banged up in prison with all the mod cons, gettin university degrees n other qualifications .....all payed for by the tax payer
You see gangs of kids hangin around at night upto no good , knowin full well that the law cannot touch them , because it is too leanient

i am probably going to sound like a compleat Bd and islamaphobe here

but here goes

Good for her!!!!!

to long have men been getting away with things under sharia law and the women must bear the brunt of it, or the men just throw money at the problem and it goes away,

women are not equal under sharia law so its good to see a woman sticking to her guns and using the law in such a way that the gets what he deserves and cannot get away with it

I also see gangs of kids hanging around up to *nothing* and being eyed with suspicion by the adults who pass them for no real reason. It depends on where you live.

But again. Is it the fault of the people who break the law (young or old) or is it the fault of society not functioning properly? Shouldn't the young and old be better integrated? Shouldn't we be leaning more toward encouraging and valuing personal responsibility?

Just banging people up is, essentially the same as soaking up the blood from an open wound without ever attempting to close the wound properly. Sticking plaster after sticking plaster becomes inadequate until you're covering up the cover ups and *still* never even approaching the (by now painful) solution which will involve peeling all of those layers away, losing a little more blood and hurting where the edges have clotted the plasters to the skin... Until you can see the wound for what it is, close it properly, clean it and let it heal.

And then you have to make sure it doesn't pop open any more until it's properly healed.