Supreme Court on Bus Searches
It seems to me that the ruling by the Supreme Court that the emotional impact on the victim’s relatives can be considered in determining punishment for murderers may open up some interesting new directions in jurisprudence.
Since the idea is that the judge or jury can now impose the death sentence if the surviving family can display enough pain and suffering as a result of the crime, it seems only fair to me that in a case when the murder victim was disliked by his family, and would not be missed, a good lawyer could make a case that the murderer ought to be allowed to go free.
To carry this logic one more step, what if the murder victim was not only disliked by his family, but was also very rich, and that they would benefit by inheriting all of his wealth? Does that mean that the murderer would not only go free but could sue the survivors for a share of the inheritance?
These conservative judges sure have some interesting ideas.
SANFORD THIER
Irvine
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