New Georgia Juvenile Justice Code
When formulating legal structures and laws, all interested parties should be involved. This is to ensure that sound legal legislations that can handle all possible case scenarios are achieved. Such is the case of the Georgia juvenile code, which was re-written after exhaustive research and grouping of “traditionally opposing legal perspectives” to come up with a strong code. The roles of the different parties in the legal proceedings in relation to juvenile proceedings were clearly refined. For instance, previously, prosecutors had to wait for district attorneys to come and preside over the juvenile cases for them to be able to perform their duties. The re-write successfully streamlined the legal discrepancies that brought about such dilemmas.
Not all laws are perfect. Some are characterized by loose ends and rigidity, aspects that are often not accounted for when they are being formulated. When a parent and child’s relationship is severed after legal proceedings and the child is put up for adoption, sometimes the adoption procedure may not go through. In other instances, the child may have to wait for long before a prospective adopter comes around. Previously, there was no provision for the reunification of the child and biological parent to reunite. While a child’s legal rights have to be granted, the social welfare of the child is also important. Temporary placements and movement between families creates more chaos and especially destabilize the child’s development. There is urgency for permanency in the child’s life. This coupled with other aspects, such as sufficient and fair punishment for delinquency is important. It would be commendable if Georgia’s action would create a precedent for other states so that juvenile justice is served better.
Executions Worldwide
While the use of capital punishment is generally on a steady decline in most countries, a group of select countries is contrarily increasing its use. The degree of use of capital punishment is significantly higher in countries exhibiting higher levels of violence like Iraq and Egypt. Authoritarian regimes like Iran, North Korea, and China also implement capital punishment at higher rates too. It is important to note that these countries try to find legitimacy in executing dissidents and political opponents. This is achieved by pinning vague crimes like terrorism on the alleged perpetrators. Countries with a strict code of conduct also have a higher degree of capital punishment implementation.
In countries like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Somalia, and Nigeria where strict Islamic laws are followed, executions tend to be higher. However, the crimes that attract capital punishment are questionable, in regards to international standards of a fair trial. Blasphemy, adultery, and sodomy comprise such crimes. Some countries also have higher numbers of capital punishment cases partly due to the size of the population. China has a big population. A regime of high secrecy and mentionable levels of authoritarianism coupled with a big population heightens the probability of perpetration of crimes that attract capital punishment in the country.
While capital punishment has been used allegedly as a deterrent of crime, it has also been highly misused by regimes for personal gains. The legitimacy of capital punishment is debatable, from region to region and culture to culture. While it is declining, according to Amnesty International, other countries are making strides in increasing its use, Egypt.
Let the Punishment Fit the crime
In a memoir to CNN, Robert Blecker’s argument on capital punishment is that there has to be a way to make it fit the crime it is being used for. The objectives of the ‘abolitionists’ or opponents of capital punishment are hard to decipher. Pharmaceutical companies that used to supply drugs to the government for lethal injections no longer accept to supply. This, Robert, casts his doubt on whether this is due to genuine moral objections or it is done to escape an economic boycott from the abolitionist spectrum of society. Lethal injection procedures, by the account of Robert Blecker, create an aura and scenario of a hospital. He finds it difficult to differentiate how a cruel and detested criminal is subjected to capital punishment and how assisted death to end the suffering of loved ones is conducted.
It is unsettling that death row convicts get to live better and more comfortable lives behind bars compared to petty offenders. It is ironic that people are always trying to find less painful ways of implementing capital punishment. They disregard the pain victims of crimes that attract capital punishment undergo. It is good to care for these criminals as fellow humans. However, it is important to remember that their victims should take up a more important part of the justice process. The only way to find justice is to inflict the same or more amount of pain and damage on the crime perpetrator, as was experienced by the victim. Additionally, it is important to let the free society that constitutes a nation decide on the laws that guide this process. Indeed, the punishment should rightly fit the crime.