Sticks and Stones

I recently objected to the legislative distinction between murder and attempted murder, reasoning that since in both cases the intention was to kill, the punishment should be the same.

Well, it turns out, the British judicial system agrees. The maximum punishment for attempted murder is indeed a life sentence. While this is different from the mandatory life sentence for murder, it allows for judicial discretion, and the failure to commit murder does not necessarily lead to a lesser punishment.

So, while I was ignorant, I now have the satisfaction of knowing that my local justice system is just.

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Chanced upon an article in the Wall Street Journal, in response to yesterday’s suicide bomb attack in the southern Israeli city of Dimona - worth a read, to remind ourselves of the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism, and the measures that have and can be taken to prevent these misguided, inhuman and murderous activities;

The news about yesterday’s suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona is that it’s news. In 2002, at the height of the second intifada, 451 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks, including 14 suicide bombings. By contrast, yesterday’s attack, which killed one and injured 11, was the first of its kind in more than a year.

This didn’t happen by accident, or because Palestinian radicals have somehow become less hostile to Israel. Responsibility for yesterday’s attack was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, which is affiliated with President Mahmoud Abbas’s ostensibly moderate Fatah party. Islamist Hamas remains even more ardently dedicated to Israel’s destruction, a point it emphasizes with its rocket barrages at southern Israeli cities close to the Gaza Strip.

Instead, the difference has come because of Israel’s increasingly successful antiterrorist efforts. Key to that success has been the construction of its ostensibly “illegal” security fence, its equally “illegal” targeted assassinations of key terrorist leaders, its “disproportional” attacks on terrorist enclaves in Jenin and elsewhere, and other actions that saved innocent lives but which much of the international community deplored.

One of the most common arguments against Israel’s actions is that it would feed a “cycle of violence.” It’s fair to say that what happened is closer to the opposite. As Israel put pressure on terrorist leaders, they were forced to spend their time running for their lives rather than planning the next attack. As Israel set up physical obstacles to terrorism, the need for large-scale military incursions declined, allowing a semblance of normal life to return for Israelis as well as Palestinians. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Israel proved that terrorists can be defeated — a lesson that applies equally in Iraq.

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There is only one difference between “murder” and “attempted murder”: that in the latter case, one fails to effect the death of the intended victim. But of course, that’s not true - there is another difference: if convicted of the latter, one will receive a much less serious sentence than the former.

Now, if one wished to get psychoanalytical, one might argue that subconsciously the culprit did not want the murder to be successful, and therefore is less culpable than if his or her victim had indeed died. If, however, one wishes to remain serious, we must concede that due to some accident or other, the attempted murderer is given a lesser sentence that the actual one.

Why should this be so? He had exactly the same intent, is an equal danger to society, shows the same disregard for human life and civil law - simply because a bullet misses by an inch, leaving the target still alive, the would-be killer is punished far less than if it had hit its mark. Meanwhile, one convicted of manslaughter, who was merely negligent, and had no intention of causing death, receives a similar sentence.

I fail to understand why criminals are judged by the outcomes of their deeds, rather than their intentions in embarking on them. Do lawmakers and judges think that inept or unlucky murderers are less of a danger to society, or need less prison time to reform and be rehabilitated? I propose that it would be much more logical to prosecute merely on the basis of intent, rather than consequence, as to my mind, the attempted murderer deserves no less of a punishment than the actual one.

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Molly Wood from CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast has started a new blog called ‘Cult of Ownership’. While we’ve written on copyright in the past, in fact the very first Sticks and Stones post was about the Creative Commons licensing used on this website, Molly is uniquely qualified to offer a comprehensive view on the tech industry and how we understand our rights regarding what we create.

In an age of more freely available digital artwork, music, and video, we perceive these materials to be free to use, share, remix, and indulge in - but those who know copyright law, especially the dreaded DMCA and the beleaguered concept of ‘fair use’ will know that this perception is very far from reality. I highly recommend Cult of Ownership, and strongly suggest you head over to the blog and read it in its entirety.

To answer the question in the title of this post, yes you do have the right to edit my photo of the Jaguar E-type, as long as you state that the original work is mine, and that you don’t use your edition or my original for commercial purposes.

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Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir made public his disdain for international involvement yesterday by appointing Musa Hilal special adviser to Sudan’s Ministry of Federal Affairs. So who is Musa Hilal, and why did his appointment elicit this reaction from the US State Department?

An answer from the International Herald Tribune:

As chieftain of a clan belonging to a powerful tribe of nomadic Arabs in Darfur, Hilal bears responsibility for the razing of African villages, the killing of villagers, the raping of women and girls and the displacement of 2.5 million people into refugee camps. For these crimes against humanity, the UN Security Council imposed travel and financial sanctions on Hilal and three other militia leaders in April 2006.

When Sudan officials claim the Janjaweed were acting on their own, or that Hilal has “contributed to stability and security,” as President Omar al-Bashir declared Monday, they are contradicting what Hilal himself has acknowledged. In an interview in 2004 with Human Rights Watch, he said he always acted under orders from the Sudan government.

Since February 2003, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been funding Hilal’s Janjaweed. We’ve been seeing it, hearing about it, reading about it, petitioning against it, and joining facebook groups about it - almost everything short of actually doing something about it.

With the Coalition for International Justice figure currently standing at 400,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless, Darfur remains the most pressing issue of our time. The reason why it usurps North Korea, and Iran is that the mass murder of human beings is more important than ICBMs in concrete bunkers. Iran and the DPRK’s nuclear weapons are a real and pressing threat, but one that can be addressed through diplomacy, tact, and sanctions. In Sudan, we need troops.

After United Nations Security Council Resolution 1769 was passed on 31 July 2007, 26,000 UN/AU troops were sent to Darfur and it finally seemed that things were changing. The media moved on to the U.S. presidential elections, and as troops began to arrive in Darfur, the Janjaweed and Baggara influence began to fade slightly.

Nevertheless, the 8 January 2008 Sudanese army attack on a UN/AU convoy, and the Hilal appointment demonstrate Khartoum’s total unwillingness to allow international intervention in Darfur. So far I have avoided calling it ‘genocide’ because the United Nations, African Union, Amnesty, and Médecins sans Frontières refuse to call it genocide. Their excuse is that there does not appear to be genocidal intent. However, what is happening in Darfur is unbridled chaos. It is rape. It is mass slaughter into the hundreds of thousands. It is a humanitarian catastrophe. It is genocide.

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