No mercy for Mercer.
I don't think a judge has ever or at least recently so succinctly and damningly summed up the utter vacuity behind a murder:
This blog is often critical of authoritarian crime policies, but an extra ten years on the twenty-two before Mercer can be considered for release would I think have served the interests of justice even better. You take someone's youth in such a pointless, meaningless, random way, we take your youth from you. It might just make some think twice, if indeed those involved have the intellect to do even that.
In sentencing Mercer, the judge Mr Justice Irwin said: "This offence arose from the stupid, brutal gang conflict which has struck this part of Liverpool. You were caught up in that from a young age, but it is clear you gloried in it. It is wrong to let anyone glorify or romanticise this king of gang conflict.
This blog is often critical of authoritarian crime policies, but an extra ten years on the twenty-two before Mercer can be considered for release would I think have served the interests of justice even better. You take someone's youth in such a pointless, meaningless, random way, we take your youth from you. It might just make some think twice, if indeed those involved have the intellect to do even that.
Labels: crime, crime policies, Rhys Jones, Sean Mercer
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Hmm. I'm not convinced Mercer deserves any longer in jail than he would have done had he managed to kill Wayne Brady as planned - while Rhys Jones's death was tragic, it clearly wasn't what any of them intended.
(obviously, he would still deserve a long sentence had he killed Brady and not Jones)
Posted by
John B |
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:23:00 PM
Surely the fact that someone other than the person intended died because of their idiotic shallow little feud over two postcodes is all the more reason for the sentence to be harsh and potentially a deterrent. I'll admit, I don't think it will be much of a deterrent, but the sheer waste of life in this instance on all sides I think justifies an even harsher sentence.
Posted by
septicisle |
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:07:00 PM