Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
It is unthinkable to me that Anders Behring Breivik would get anything less than the death penalty for slaughtering at least 76 innocents and injuring scores of others. But he most certainly will not face the retribution he deserves because Norway outlawed the practice of capital punishment in 1905. In fact, the maximum sentence Breivik could receive is 21 years in prison. The Daily Caller's Jamie Weinstein reports:
TheDC contacted three professors from the University of Oslo’s faculty of law over the weekend to confirm Norwegian police reports that the maximum sentence that can be imposed on killer Anders Behring Breivik is 21 years. All three confirmed that 21 years was the maximum possible sentence, but two of the professors offered a defense of the system that would allow Breivik to be out of jail by his mid-50s.
“I think it is very important to keep it that way, despite the gruesome events that have occurred now,” Professor Thomas Mathiesen said of the 21-year max penalty. “Norwegian society will gain nothing from a higher punishment level, people of this kind will not become less prone to engage as this man did on Friday 22 July, and the punishment level we have now will contribute to Norway staying the relatively humane society that we are proud of and want to live in.”
“Many among us are proud to live in a country that emphasize moderation in retribution,” Professor Nils Christie told TheDC. “I hope, and believe, that we also this time will be able to stick to our ideals of moderation in punishment. The preliminary reactions to these days of horror in Norway have been exposure of a strong urge to live up to our basic ideals of remaining an open welfare society based on humanity.”
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
While I am in favor of the death penalty, I would never condemn others for abolishing it. Nor would I comment on their justice system. It is theirs. By the same token, I would appreciate it if others recognize that ours is ours. If they are proud of it, it is fine by me.
Oct '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
Well. There goes another 2% of the vote to the opposition parties in Norway.
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
I disagree. 21 years in prison for killing dozens of children is not justice. If it is, the concept of justice is meaningless.
Mar '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
Norway reaps what it sows. Consider all the stories of people who went to talk to the gunman because they believed that talking would solve the problem. Those people are dead. One hopes (in vain) that their idiocy died with them.
Jan '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
One should be thankful, I suppose, that their Viking blood seems to be all but spent.
Aug '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
There's been a lot of talk about whether the death penalty is a deterent on other potential murderers. While that subject can be debated I can say unequivocally that it is a 100% deterent for the person executed!
What makes these goofy Norwegians think this guy won't go on another killing spree when he gets out in 21 years? I certainly wouldn't want to be around him when he gets out...
Jun '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
A "humane" society would protect the innocent and execute pathological killers. It's too bad that misplaced sentiment now wears the mask of wisdom.
The purpose of firearms is to stop the violence at the point of attack with overwhelming lethal force. One person skilled with a weapon on that island might have saved the lives of many. The inability to assess a threat and deal with it is characteristic of a decadent society.
It's about culture, not race. The same atrocity attempted in Israel or Switzerland would have brought a hail of gunfire in response.
Mar '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
I guess he'll be happy here.
Jun '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
What it means is, in Norway, life is cheap. That's what a 21-year maximum-sentence for Breivik means. It might also be nice to have an armed security guard or two at remote locations where hundreds of teens gather.
Jul '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
It might also be nice to have a conceal and carry law.
Oct '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
Diane Ellis: 21 years in prison for killing dozens of children is not justice. If it is, the concept of justice is meaningless.
Paules: It's too bad that misplaced sentiment now wears the mask of wisdom.
Well said. In a mere two decades--when most perhaps are in their late-50s or 60s--parents of the slaughtered children might well have to see Breivik enjoying a meal out in the small society that is Norway. (Forget even the victims’ siblings and friends.) He, one imagines, will have just blogged vile justifications for his acts. What concept of justice makes this seem like an enlightened outcome? How is it ‘humane’ to make the victims’ loved ones suffer endlessly so that a psychotic killer may roam free? How is it a mark of advancement for a society to place a killer’s welfare above that of his victims’ families? Indeed, is it hard to see that this is a far more barbaric outcome, producing more harm to society then executing the killer ever could? As etoiledunord indicates, this devalues the life of the victims and their families. In the name of what supposed social benefit? It boggles the mind.
May '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
Makes me proud to be an ugly American.
Dec '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
The hubby and I had decided it must be 21 years per victim before I read this. 21 years total is unthinkable. I just can't believe it.
And you know, this monster is highly intelligent. He probably knew what his sentence would be going in. Just like he knew he could only buy fertilizer in sufficient quantities to blow up the PM by buying farmland first. And if he wore a police uniform, people would actually run toward him seeking help. His sickness is only superseded by a society which justifies incarcerating him for only 21 years for the murder of 60 some souls. I'm thoroughly disgusted.
Mar '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
I don't know what the rules are in Norway but, if it's anything like the UK, he could conceivably be out in half the time for good behavior.
Indeed, he probably knew this.
Edited on July 26, 2011 at 10:12amMar '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
He should be tried before a jury of his peers and executed.
Scandinavia has suffered for too long in the grips of the therapeutic pity society model.
The only example set before the world by failing to execute men like this is that we are willing to tolerate any action, no matter how heinous.
Aug '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
Here's an irony: A lone vigilante could kill this nutjob in public - assured of no more than 21 years in prison.
Edited on July 26, 2011 at 3:51pmApr '11
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
While I don't have any information on this point specific to Norway, generalising for Europe as a whole the death penalty has been abolished there in spite of public opinion, not because of it. As British journalist Ed West remarks ( http://is.gd/Y1gvPc ):
"[T]he reason the United States has capital punishment and Europe doesn’t is not because Europeans are soft, hand-wringing lefties who all have sociology degrees, but because Europe is less democratic. In every opinion poll, the majority of British people have expressed support for capital punishment; even a majority of the Dutch, who we consider the most liberal and decadent people on earth, favour it."
I would not be surprised if what is true of Britain and the Netherlands is also true of Norway. Almost all Western countries have abolished capital punishment and they have typically done so as a result of a liberal elite imposing its will on the majority of the people who still support the retention of capital punishment. Among Western societies the United States is a rare democratic exception when it comes to retaining the death penalty.
Sep '10
Re: Norway's Justice System a Disgrace
"The preliminary reactions to these days of horror in Norway have been exposure of a strong urge to live up to our basic ideals of remaining an open welfare society based on humanity.”
Keep that ideal in the face of this kind of aggression and all you will be in twenty one years is a footnote in history.