perspective 1- the intention
If the results the same, Does intent matter
perspective 1 yes
Before I begin, I would just like to say that the topic of my speech involves death, criminal activity, and victim impact. if at any point you start to feel uncomfortable you are welcome to leave the room.
On the 9th of July this year, A mother and her young daughter had their lives snatched away from them due to a drunk driver who was three times over the legal limit. This 19-year-old man was jailed for 4 years and 3 months but still, the family of the victims called it a “slap in the face” Even though there was no intent behind the deaths, just a stupid mistake, do you think he was given the right punishment? If he wasn’t intoxicated would he still have had to do time? these are questions I pondered whilst reading this article.
The reasoning behind the anecdote that I just shared was to inform you that not everybody who takes a life is bad, innocent people make choices that can take a huge toll on their future. Today I will be taking you through the topic of “if the result is the same, does intent really matter” I will cover the reasons why intent does and doesn’t necessarily matter with examples of two different murders and finish off with my overall perspective on the matter. This speech incorporates and then there were none Through Justice Wargraves ordered constructed killings. through the intent and the severity of the crimes committed. in these eyes, intent dint makes a difference, if you killed someone you were guilty, there was no way around that and he served his own justice accordingly.
premeditated muder-
There is a major difference between premeditated killings and manslaughter, both are considered terrible crimes but subsequently, offer very different punishments. Premeditated murders are one of the most seen and serious forms of homicides and are punished more brutally than others. These punishments can end the outcome of a life sentence without parole and in other countries, the death penalty Premeditated murder involves a lot of time and careful planning before anything happens. This means that the killer didn’t just get angry and kill for the sake of it, the intent was involved and sadly in these situations, the victim wouldn’t get away without losing his/her life.
manslaughter is on the other side of the scale, this is a crime that is unlawful without malice aforethought- intent to kill or harm an individual. However, this is still a crime and life in prison is still on the tables for some.
so in the eyes of the law does intent matter, 100% yes. The intent of someone’s crime is crucial for determining how one is convicted. Intent is very important as it distinguishes crimes from accidents. If someone is involved in a car crash even if they get injured it doesn’t count as an intentional crime. The results are most likely to end with no criminal charges being filed. This is a perfect example of where the criminal act is in play but criminal intent isn’t. However, many people are killed intentionally for various reasons like Heidi Welman-Scott. Heidi met a brutal end when she was murdered in her Northshore home. She was stabbed to death by her estranged husband Brent Scott. He was so determined to kill his wife that he got violent with his own daughter. Like many other attacks, this was not spontaneous but was highly calculated and premeditated murder. statistics in 2016 say that out of the 50 murder convictions in NZ only 8 of the 58 recorded were manslaughter which means that the other 50 were intentional crimes. Our minds want us to believe that there is good in everyone but in actual fact, there are some cruel, cold-hearted people who are set out on getting revenge on those who don’t necessarily deserve it.
Now lets put criminal law to the side and talk about the ones who are most affected by the victim’s death, the victim themselves and their loved ones. It doesn’t matter if someone had been killed through someone’s else intent or not,at the end of the day a mother has lost a son/daughter, a brother or sister has lost their sibling and a child has lost their mum or dad. When someone close to you loses their life, it doesn’t matter how it happened all you think about is how one of the most important people to you has been torn away from this world. At the start of my speech, I shared a story about a mother and daughter who died in a car accident, their families didn’t believe that the man responsible deserved to be free after a short time incarcerated, He was able to move on with his life knowing that the victims family would never get the chance to see them again ever again. so to these people’s intent doesn’t matter at all, if it was up to the families, the one responsible should never get to enjoy life again and that would be the only way justice could be served.
When it comes to my opinion, I believe that intent matters and plays a large role in our everyday lives, it allows us as humans, to make sense of situations and in the cases of murder, separates the innocent from the guilty. Without the defining line of intent, we wouldn’t be able to justify putting people in prison for something that could have been out of their control.
Death and Murder will always be a tricky topic to discuss and get our heads around.
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