Law, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Terrorism by Roger Douglas

Author:Roger Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
Published: 2018-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sentences

Courts seem sympathetic to the sentiments that underlie the legislature's decision to impose heavy maximum sentences for precursor terrorism offences.50 They attach little weight to the fact that a defendant was arrested before having had an opportunity to give effect to his or her terrorist intentions. What matters are defendants' intentions prior to their arrest.51 Courts also do not attach much weight to the fact that most of those convicted of terrorism offences have had no prior convictions or to the fact that some of them would have been people of excellent character but for their involvement in terrorism.52 Lack of remorse and evidence of commitment to terrorism count in favour of a long sentence and are taken as suggesting little likelihood of rehabilitation.53

In serious cases, even remorse may not count for much: in a Canadian case involving a conspiracy that, if effected, would have caused massive loss of life and property damage, the ringleader was sentenced to the maximum sentence (“life”54 imprisonment) on the more serious count, notwithstanding a (late) guilty plea and some evidence of remorse.55 A US circuit court held that a district court erred in not recognising terrorists as unusual in that their likelihood of recidivism did not decrease with age.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.