can someone enlighten me?

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbelle

OK, jambutty I'll give you an example. A woman who has suffered years of abuse at the hands of seriously depraved spouse, decides one night she can't take it anymore! She takes a knife to bed that night with the intention of killing him when he falls asleep.

You have a dead person on your hands jambutty, but should that lady spend the rest of her life rotting in a jail? Seriously?

Your emotive example is always trotted out when murder is being discussed but it is still pre-meditated murder Tinkerbelle no matter how people try to dress it up. No person has the right to take the law into their own hands and take another person’s life.

However when such a case comes to trial I would expect the jury and the judge to be acquainted with the facts leading up to the murder and exercise compassion when passing sentence.

Incidentally in this day and age people do not rot in jail. But the phrase rot in jail is often used in an emotive way to try and sway the argument.

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Your emotive example is always trotted out when murder is being discussed

Well, as the case of R v Ahluwalia (1992) set a very important precedent, of course it's going to get 'trotted out'.

Originally Posted by jambutty

Incidentally in this day and age people do not rot in jail. But the phrase rot in jail is often used in an emotive way to try and sway the argument.

No argument to sway, everyone is entitled to an opinion.