#like. you have committed crimes they would give you the death penalty for

[englandsgirl18181234]

I'd say sorry for the sudden political spam but I'm really not. We finally have a good option and we need to grab it with both hands and run with it as far as we fucking can. So here's some facts that people seem to be ignoring when they say you shouldn't vote for Harris.

Harris was not a fucking cop, she was a district attorney and attorney general. Stop fucking saying otherwise, it's misinformation and you need to understand that.

Harris is documentedly pro LGBTQ+. When she was elected Attorney General, she co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense which passed. She also officiated the first same-sex wedding in California after Section 8 was overturned 20 years ago.

In her entire time as District Attorney she never sought the death penalty. She also created the San Francisco Reentry Division, with the first of its kind reentry program Back On Track for first-time nonviolent offenders. 200 people graduated from it with less than 10 percent going on to commit another crime, compared to the 53 percent of California drug offenders that would do so in less than 2 years after release.

When she was elected to Attorney General of California, she introduced the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics.

In 2015, Harris's California Department of Justice became the first statewide agency in the US to require all of its police officers to wear body cameras.

So to reiterate:

Fucking vote for Harris.

Voting third party right now is not the fucking way. All it's gonna do is split the fucking votes that we need to keep Trump out of office. None of the third party candidates have the numbers to actually beat Trump. It's not going to fucking happen, stop saying it will because you're lying to yourself and others.

Not voting at all is even fucking worse than voting third party and you're an idiot if you think otherwise. Not voting isn't a fucking protest like some idiots are spouting. It's not making a fucking point. It is giving the fuck up and being a coward about it. It is actively choosing to not make things better when you have the fucking chance and I am disgusted that people actually think it's a good idea when we are on the verge of a second term for a literal traitor and convicted felon that actively thinks disabled and LGBTQ people should die.

Someone is still going to be President. Full stop, that is how elections fucking work. THERE IS STILL GOING TO BE A PRESIDENT. There is still going to be a president whether you vote or not. And our only real options right now are Harris or Trump. So use your fucking vote to make things better in the only way we can right now.

Yeah, there are things Harris needs to change and things she isn't on the right side on. But Trump is worse in every possible fucking way. So we need to lock this down and push for improvement, not decide shit is hopeless and fucking give the bad guy the win now that we finally have a fucking shot!

You didn't want to vote for Biden? Great, you're not! Now take the fucking miracle that just dropped into our fucking laps and run with it!

[homunculus-argument]

Why are you Finns so miserable? From an outside perspective, as someone who lives in a country where our government has continuously failed us, your country seems to be nearly perfect. It seems like paradise.

I truly feel that most people living in my country would kill to live in one like yours. I would saw off my leg if it meant that I could have the guaranteed quality of life that you guys have.

So why are you guys so sad? Is it the cold? The lack of sunlight? I’m seriously at a loss here, because I feel like you guys really take your homeland for granted.

I have no idea. Being alive is simply an unpleasant obligation and a thankless duty that you owe to nobody in particular and gain nothing out of doing. I was literally born as an unpleasant obligation - my parents didn't like each other and they didn't like children, but they married each other and had two kids because that's what people are supposed to do. When we whined as kids about how we don't want to go to school, they'd just say "well I don't want to go to work, either, but unfortunately that's just what life is." Life consists of going places you don't want to go to do things you don't want to do.

My mother once told me that if I ever kill myself, she will go completely insane, just the way that my grandmother went insane when my aunt killed herself. I was like 15 at the time when she told me this, I had been three years old when the aforementioned aunt died. I had never known her, but I was raised with the understanding that the only reason to continue being alive is peer pressure. You don't get to die, you have to keep living because the people around you would be sad if you quit. It's a mutual hostage situation.

Back when the church had more power and death penatly was a thing, there were people who committed crimes that had a death penalty (or claimed to have committed them, depending on the crime) in order to get executed rather than simply commit suicide, because suicide was an unforgivable sin but if you were executed, you could still confess your sins before the final blow and die with hopes of going to heaven.

Finns aren't oblivious of how bad things are everywhere else, or how good we have it. That, too, is a source of misery. It's a whole country of "you have no reason to be sad, there are people out there with real problems" and being reminded that everything everywhere else is even more miserable than how we have it. That anyone else would be ready to kill or saw off their own leg to get to be here, and here we are squandering all this potential by sitting here like a miserable little piece of shit.

Frankly, I am baffled by the concept that there really are people who just genuinely, honestly, wholeheartedly want to live. Like as a preferrable option to having never been born at all. To me, finding happiness in life has always been a "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" sort of thing, finding silver linings out of the unfortunate matter that I happened to be born.

[thecruellestmonth]

Does the mass-murdering criminal Jason "Red Hood" Todd canonically support the death penalty?

No, I can't find evidence that Red Hood supports the death penalty.

There is a difference between murder (illegal) and state-sanctioned killing (legal). Red Hood commits unlawful homicide. The death penalty is lawful homicide. Jason is a murderer. The death penalty is not legally considered murder. Commissioner Jim Gordon is a decorated military veteran, not a murderer.

Committing violence ≠ wanting the government to have the right to commit that violence. Batman and his allies brutalize criminals; they don't necessarily support the state brutalizing criminals. Red Hood kills some criminals; Red Hood doesn't necessarily support the state killing criminals. Catwoman doesn't necessarily support the state committing burglary. Et cetera.

The death penalty is administered by the criminal legal system. Jason does not like the criminal legal system (see some of his run-ins with the police). He grew up as an impoverished child who didn't believe in the system, he was raised by Batman to believe that vigilantes can make a difference that the system can't, and he became an adult criminal who still doesn't believe in the system. He's not interested in using the criminal legal system. He isn't interested in giving more powers and privileges to an abusive system that has wronged him and the people he cares about.

When Jason started up his villain business, the death penalty was legal in Gotham City. (See Detective Comics #644, The Joker: Devil's Advocate, Batgirl 2000 #19, Punchline #1.) The death penalty was also in place during his Robin run. Jason didn't argue in favor of the state having the right to kill prisoners, and the death penalty never addressed his complaints about the status quo.

Jason has rescued people from wrongful* imprisonment and the death penalty. Again, based on his own firsthand experiences, he has many reasons to believe that the system is broken. *Some of us would argue that locking any people in prisons tends to be wrongful and inhumane by default, but we could choose to accept and critique the standard premises of crime fiction as entertainment without endorsing it as moral instruction.

Jason Todd is a criminal: a mass murderer, a terrorist, a villain. He does evil. He doesn't represent or support the legal system. He probably has the least political capital out of all the Batfamily-associated characters. He doesn't promote the death penalty. He commits murder—illegally, as a criminal, state-unapproved.

Some recent comics related to the topic:

Gotham Nights (2020) #11 "One Minute After Midnight", written by Marc Guggenheim

Red Hood and Nightwing team up to investigate the case of a man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to be executed. Both of them disapprove of how the broken criminal legal system botched this case.

Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8 (2023), written by Matthew Rosenberg

"You familiar with Hannah Arendt's concept of Schreibtischtäter? Desk murderers? It's people who use the state to kill for them, so they don't have to get their hands dirty."

[tangerinetrees]

Hello! So sorry to bug you out of nowhere, but you added something really cool from the legal realm to a chain of custody post so I was wondering on your take on whether Harvey Dent could practice law in Gotham (even if he did get disbarred for criminal activities)?

hello! tysm for asking about harvey bc he’s very dear to me!! i do want to specify first that my legal knowledge is mostly limited to like a) criticizing the justice system in the us, and b) pretty vague in terms of the nuances to new jersey’s state system bc i don’t live there, so this is 80% headcanon and 20% personal research. also warning this got kinda long

like for one, regarding the state legal system, apparently jersey has “county prosecutors” (equivalent to new york’s district attorneys) who are appointed by the state attorney general instead of being elected. given it’s pretty much a staple for gotham to have a DA, we’re already throwing real world examples out the window

harvey getting disbarred is a really interesting point to me (<- intense focus on minutiae in world building), given that it’s already established in universe that gotham’s system is corrupt - which should include everyone from police to judges to prosecutors to prisons. which is kinda funny since most comics and adaptations don’t take the level of corruption inherent to police+prosecutors to nearly the depths they reach irl in the usa? and irl they rarely get disciplined or disbarred? i digress. because of the highly public nature of harvey / two face going on a revenge spree against gotham’s mob families, starting his own crime syndicate, and his arrest being published in the media, i think it’s safe to say he was disbarred.

while i’m not sure of how disbarment works as a process, i can imagine the NJ supreme court conducting an investigation into harvey’s crimes and run as DA to decide whether or not to disbar him - and all of the cops/ADAs/politicians/judges he pissed off while trying to reform gotham giving support for his disbarment. not to mention the actual criminal case that would be filed against harvey. disbarment in jersey is permanent (although apparently this might be changing recently?), so realistically, harvey can’t ever be reinstated. man crashed and killed his career so he could kill the maronis. which kind of explains harvey’s hopelessness about rebuilding his life

i mean mostly we see harvey offering legal advice, or sometimes just ‘holding court’ as a way for harv and twos to argue with each other. theoretically harvey could choose to represent himself in court. but even if they finish serving a sentence and try to build a non-crimey life, harvey’s disbarment would be his biggest obstacle to practicing law again. maybe given how convoluted gotham’s legal system is, ex con harvey would be allowed to practice in some but not all courts? like civil court and family court is fine, but as for criminal court... harvey can help with your divorce but he can’t defend you for committing robbery lmao

but honestly my preferred take is that two face and harvey have separate licenses. there was a scene in i think btas where they had a credit card with two face listed as the name, and in one of his runs with red hood he mentions their drivers license being out of date. so really i just think it would be hilarious if two face was not disbarred, or if he passed the bar as part of a rehab program (and i can definitely see a wayne sponsored convict higher education program existing in gotham)

(and relatedly, harvey and the other rogues being sentenced to arkham over and over again has fascinating implications? since traditionally it’s not a correctional facility the way a prison like blackgate is, not really. which would insinuate that despite being hella corrupt, gotham’s DAs don’t typically push for death penalty (illegal in NJ since 2007 btw) or even for life in prison, depending on the case. who knows? maybe harvey’s reform policies have kickstarted a lineage of more progressive DAs. well. unless arkham is being used as a jail+hospital for ppl with health needs, and that sentenced inmates are awaiting trial, bc then that would be more fucked up..)

anyway! sorry for this very long response lol, harvey and two face are my boys, and i could go on all night about them. tldr, whether or not harvey can practice law depends on 1) how closely you want adhere to jersey law, 2) whether he’s currently an escapee/avoiding arkham or an ex-con, and 3) how funny it is at the moment. there was a post floating around about how a reformed dent storyline should be harvey as a pro bono civil defense lawyer and two face as a personal injury lawyer which to me is the ideal state of things lol

[plus-i-miss-you]

hey can i request anything (rom) shidou related . please t2 prisioner reader and in jail setting . besides that go wild i love that man so much no matter the scenario it'll be great + the 1 post u have up at time of requesting is REALLY good so .. idk i trust itll be good no matter what

▷ listening to:

"maybe it's okay to give love a second chance" (gn!reader)

⇆ㅤ ㅤ◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ ㅤㅤ↻ ılıılıılıılıılıılıㅤ

♪ note: SO SORRY ANON FOR TAKING SUCH A LONG TIME WORKING ON THIS... uni be damned i'll try my best to finish writing all the requests i have in my inbox! (also i really should make a masterlist..)

♪ summary: after the first trial, shidou has been voted innocent.. not the verdict he was hoping for. and now he has mahiru and fuuta's injuries to take care of. the second trial is already a lot for him, so you can only hope you can help him somehow.

♪ warnings: none 

♪ shidou just couldn't understand why he was forgiven. he literally asked for a death penalty. yes, he knew about the three trials system, but he could still be voted guilty after the first trial, right? he thought this would make es's work easier, they don't even have to think about his verdict, they just have to vote him guilty and that's it. but for some reason unknown to him, the 15 year old guard still decided to forgive him. why? maybe there was something wrong with his video? or.. it actually was their idea of punishing him?

♪ you didn't know anything about shidou's crime. you had some thoughts, but theorizing about a fellow prisoner's crime felt wrong and weird. however, you still couldn't agree with his own opinion on his crime. you've talked to him before, you've seen him help others, you just couldn't believe that someone like him could've committed such a horrible crime that he deserved to die for it. maybe you did like him. maybe you were biased. but hey, you doubt that the guard's judgement was 100% unbiased either.

♪ you've seen him help mahiru and fuuta. mahiru could've literally died if it wasn't for him. how can someone like him deserve to be executed for his crime? maybe you just don't want to accept the truth. maybe you just don't want to accept that even someone like shidou is responsible for murdering someone. maybe even more than one person. yes, you're a prisoner as well, but it was hard for you to accept that other prisoners are murderers too, especially someone as young as amane.

♪ shidou doesn't understand why you're so nice to him. don't get him wrong, he appreciates it, but he still feels like he doesn't deserve to be treated this way by you. you're just so gentle, so kind, so sweet, he doesn't understand why you're here just as much as you don't understand why he's here. he will never ask you about your crime though. he understands that it obviously can be something that is hard for you to talk about. if you want to talk about it though, he will listen.

♪ your conversations with shidou are calm and quiet. nobody knows what you two are talking about. nobody can even hear you. sometimes you two sit in complete silence and it's not boring or awkward or anything. you appreciate each other's company and you both just feel a little lighter. if shidou looks tired, you ask if there's anything you can help him with. whether or not you have experience with medical help, you don't mind taking care of other prisoners even if it's just staying by their side while they sleep. you just want to help shidou somehow.

♪ when shidou goes back to check up on mahiru's condition and sees you talking to her and making her laugh and smile even if she's still in pain and making her day brighter, he can't help but smile too. even if he doesn't ask you, you still offer him your help. you still continue to treat shidou with kindness and you don't expect anything from him. when he asks you about everything that you do, you simply shrug and say that "it feels like the right thing to do". haha, you're even more pure than he thought.

♪ when shidou spends time with you, he forgets about his own pain for a minute and at first he felt extremely guilty for that. how can he forget about it? how can he even think about possibly forgetting about it? this is why he deserves a death penalty, this is why he deserves a guilty vote, this is why he deserves to be here. he doesn't know what it is about you that makes him feel like maybe it's okay for him to keep living. ah, no, no, it doesn't mean that you, uh.. remind him of someone from his past. you are you, after all. and it's you who adds at least some kind of meaning to his life at the moment, not counting the prisoners who need his help, of course.

♪ shidou makes sure you get enough rest as well and he's quick to notice if something is wrong. maybe you look more tired than usual, maybe you're refusing to eat, maybe you move a bit slower. he will gently remind you to take a break and will even make sure you get one. you can take a nap while he's in the same room as you, it's fine, there's no need to rush or push yourself. of course, he's worried about all the prisoners here, but for some reason, the thought of losing you.. hurts him the most. 

[hero-israel]

i know i'm stating the obvious but:

the thing that gets me is that. erasing jews' indigenity to the levant and casually claiming israel is committing genocide and apartheid… it's all untrue and completely wrong and horrible. and obviously that needs to be recognized.

but at this point there is a part of me that is like "it doesn't even matter whether or not israelis are Colonizers."

because even if it WAS true, even if israel was doing every horrible thing some of these people claim, NONE of that justifies celebrating rape, mass murder of civilians, child murder, and harassing and committing violence against jews globally.

i don't know how to talk to anyone who thinks labeling people "an oppressor" means you can justify anything to them, even war crimes and the worst kinds of human rights violations. i thought it was obvious that was unacceptable, at the very least among people who purport to care deeply about human rights.

i suppose it's naive of me, but it truly was a shocker to find out how much of the Left's commitment to human rights was a complete lie. i expected antisemitic responses in the form of "whataboutism," in downplaying what happened, and even denial, but not this. i thought there would be some people acting like hamas were oppressed freedom fighters and denying their atrocious tactics... i didn't expect SO MANY people to outright celebrate the horror.

i guess it's just making me realize how many of these people don't actually give a damn about human rights, about human suffering and justice, they care about being Right, and finding righteous targets to hate and attack. i always knew that existed, but i assumed that was a small, vocal minority mainly online. the rot goes so much deeper than i realized, and i have no idea what to do about it.

While it certainly does matter that the "colonizer" frame is a complete lie, you raise a good point about the significance of a supermassive surge in leftist advocacy for the death penalty and corrective rape. These are often the same people who want prisons and police abolished, but it turns out they held far more enthusiastic lust for gory revenge than your average Texas governor. They increasingly talk like abortion clinic bombers.

They have no principles, only a vocab list. Every woman Donald Trump grabbed was a colonizer, as were all the protestors Kyle Rittenhouse shot in Waukesha or James Fields rammed with his car in Charlottesville. John Wayne Gacy preferred targeting white males. It would take perhaps 3-6 words to make them into left-idpol heroes. What happens when a school shooter figures out to say "colonizer"? No, really. The man who beat Sarah Halimi to death in her Paris apartment said he saw Hebrew writing on her walls and it made him feel persecuted and oppressed.

[em-dash-press]

The Dark Art of Character Sacrifice: 5 Reasons Why Writers Kill Their Characters

There are some good reasons to kill characters in your fictional stories and definitely some bad ones. It’s hard to know what’s cliche and what’s not when you’re first starting out (or when your mind is caught up in the middle of a manuscript).

Use these ideas to see if taking one of your characters out of a story could make it work better.

1. To Start Their Story

Plenty of stories start with someone dying in the first chapter or two. It’s usually someone important to the protagonist. Sometimes it’s someone whose death directly or indirectly changes the protagonist’s life.

Here are some examples:

The protagonist is a 10-year-old child raised by their grandma, who passes away. The story is about the protagonist experiencing the foster care system.

The protagonist is an 18-year-old graduating from high school. A few days after graduation, the president of their country is assassinated by another leading country. The protagonist joins the military to fight in the ensuing war. The story is about the horrors of war.

The protagonist is a 50-year-old woman. She’s independent, has a thriving career, and feels great about her life. Suddenly, her best friend of 20 years dies. The story is about processing and living with grief.

All of these deaths are foundational to each story’s overall plot and theme. Without the deaths, the stories would be very different. The protagonists would continue living their normal lives and not experience the specific events you want to write about.

2. To Emphasize the Theme

Character deaths can emphasize a story’s theme. Let’s say you’re writing about how deeply cruel humans can be to one another over money. The antagonist kills someone the protagonist cares about. The loss sets the protagonist back due to staggering grief, so the antagonist gets to make a financial deal that the protagonist was trying to score.

There are a few ways this would reflect the theme. It shows how greed can be all-consuming, to the point of erasing someone’s morals. It also speaks briefly to the reality that cruelty happens to people indirectly. It’s horrible for the person who dies and those who love them.

3. To Add Closure to Their Arc

At some point in your story, there will be a character who completes their arc. They might make amends with someone they hurt, feel at peace about their life after reaching a big goal, or otherwise finally feel settled. If that character dies, the reader and protagonist grieve together. They can also come to the same conclusion through the rest of your story—the character who died lived a life that made them happy.

That’s not to say happy people can’t continue growing. Life is always going to present new ways to grow. Stories will do the same for characters. However, when you don’t necessarily need a character anymore, death can be a poetic end.

4. To Add Justice to the Story

When your protagonist stops the antagonist from harming others, the crimes the antagonist committed might make the protagonist call for their death. We have this in the real world with the death penalty. 

This post isn’t going into the ethics behind the death penalty, but I mention it because wanting justice to the point of killing the perpetrating criminal is something many people can relate to. It’s a tool you can use in your story to drive home your theme (what real justice looks like, mercy, forgiveness, etc.) or exemplify your feelings about real-world dilemmas (the actual death penalty, vigilante justice, etc.).

5. To Add a Plot Twist

While you’re writing your story, that draft belongs exclusively to you. You can do whatever you want with it. Sometimes it’s helpful to write a death scene and re-read your work. See how the story feels and if it works with that death written into it.

You might not have planned it, but maybe it gives you fresh ideas about where to take the story. Every plot twist has a purpose—you can find it before or after writing the twist by giving yourself the freedom to explore alternate realities within your fictional world.

-----

There are many other reasons why writers kill their characters. By all means, do more research if you don’t feel like these ideas fit with your WIP. It’s better to know what deaths can mean and do in fiction because it informs your writing. Your stories will make more sense to you and your readers.

[ari-burr]

~ Allen F. Jones • Headcanons ♡

Allen’s motto is: “If your gonna do something dumb, be fuckin’ smart about it.” 

Which doesn’t grant much surprise when his close friends and family find out how much a felon he really is.

These days however, he makes sure all his stunts aren’t too common or deplorable for him to get tracked down and thrown behind bars.

Allen had learnt the hard way after Oliver couldn’t handle bailing him out anymore which resulted to leaning on Matthieu as a last resort to wrangle the shit out of him.

And the moment he left the prison with his brother in tow, not only was he half deaf from the yelling [in French and in English], but also a bit more bruised up than before he stepped inside.

Due to his many infamous feats in the law, Allen has become regrettably well acquainted with the cops who’ve been arresting him. So much so, that whenever he spots a familiar policeman on the street or in a nearby restaurant he’ll flip them the bird and walk by without a care. 

As if he isn’t disrespecting the people who can throw him in jail for the 50th time.

Allen has a strong New York accent. And added with his deep and somewhat gruff voice, people perceive him to be dangerous or dangerously attractive. [Allen’s fine with either or ;>].

He does enjoy shooting guns like Alfred, but enjoys short-ranged weapons as well. Allen's naturally gifted with any melee-weapons. Be it knifes, bats, handguns, you name it. 

His real specialty though, is hand to hand combat.

If or when he and Alfred get into a fight Allen can honestly give the latter a run for his money if weapons aren't involved.

After the first few years of introduction, things between the two were pretty rocky since both came from completely separate heritages and in turn, disagreed on a plethora of things when it came to running the country.

~ But turning to the subject of him and you, you probably first saw the latter during the dead of night. Sitting in a park where the streetlights limelight glow illuminated his form—or perhaps smoking less than legal substances in an alley way with a certain Chinese man.

You, living in New York, knew better than to hang out around alleys, have small talk with strangers and stick around longer than you should. Especially in this side of the city in the 1970s. So the most you would do was spare a quick glance and walk off on your merry way. 

When you first moved to Manhattan, you held a very general idea of what the city might be like.

Densely populated, filled with rude people, stoners getting high in the alleyways, hookers coming in and out of bars, overpriced apartments, and much, much more. Course, you understood that not every part of the city was terrible. But being street-smart was your best ticket in avoiding any trouble.

And after seeing those familiar red-tainted auburn hair with a certain cow-lick sticking up more than once, it left your mind screaming the words danger and leave.

Allen’s reputation was deeply rooted within darkest parts of New York, and while he hasn’t committed any serious crimes to receive the death penalty yet, it was best not to cross paths with the latter.

Or at least get on his bad-side. 

But you, being part of the unlucky bunch, has.

Having developed a sharp tongue since childhood, you obtained a nasty habit of insulting people in between sentences. All of it was purely involuntary as no one corrected you until much later into adulthood.

So you made sure to keep conversations short and to the point. To protect not only the other persons feelings, but the strain it took minding every phrase.

Allen one night, had walked up next to you after you were finally released from your job hours. When he saw you leaned up against the stone wall at behind the building and simply relishing in the icy air prickling your skin and cooling your fiery nerves, all of it lit a spark in his mind.

You were the the person he kept seeing. 

The poor soul that continued to make their way into his thoughts. 

So what’s the harm in trying to get to know you? But of course, the conversation doesn’t go as smoothly as he planned.

“Hey dollface, haven’t I seen you somewhere before~?”

Your eyes flicked over to him as you replied in a heartbeat,

“Yes, that’s why I don’t go there anymore.”

[kaurwreck]

i also have a death note question - what happens if every country which can wants to extradite light? is it first come first serve? would he potentially avoid prison forever because he has infinity trials to attend in all the countries?

No; extradition from Japan is already immensely rare, and Japan will not delay prosecuting a Japanese citizen located in Japan for violating Japanese law so that foreign governments can take their pound of flesh.

Also, although Japan has a bail system, there is no reality where Light Yagami, mass murderer and terrorist, receives bail, and he would be held in detention during the legal proceedings.

Most likely, Japan would try Light, and as L indicates in canon, Light would almost certainly receive the death penalty. There are nine criteria that Japanese courts use to determine sentencing re: murder convictions, and Light is fucked according to nearly all nine, but especially in regard to the most important criterion, which is the number of victims:

Degree of viciousness

Motive

The manner in which the victim(s) was (/were) killed

Outcome of the crime, especially # of victims

Impact of the crime on Japanese society

Defendant's age

Defendant's previous criminal record

Degree of remorse shown by defendant

To give you a frame of reference for Light's position in Japanese criminal law, the criteria above were established in a matter regarding a severely disadvantaged 19 year old who committed four separate robbery-murders in 1968. He was given a life prison sentence, and then, in 1983, the Supreme Court of Japan held it was a judicial error and sentenced him to death.

Although some inmates remain on death row for years and even decades, Light's crimes are high profile, shocking, immense in scope, and severe; I can't imagine his execution warrant would be delayed.

Just because countries can request extradition of foreign nationals does not mean that the countries receiving those requests are required to humor that request, even where there are treaties. (Treaties are not any more binding than the signatories' will to uphold them, which is, in turn, dependent on their incentives for doing so— they're essentially gentlemen's agreements made in mutual interest.)

Laws are not inherent forces of nature to which we are compelled— they're systems created by governments and communities that are only as effective as they are enforceable. If it's impractical or impossible to enforce a law, or if the would-be enforcer does not have the leverage or authority or means or ability to enforce its law, then that law will not be enforced.

tl;dr: Other countries do not have any recourse if they can't access Light— and Japan isn't going to pass him around or allow them to form a queue when Japan has its own laws to enforce against him.

[ragnarokhound]

re: your tags on the jason’s anger post~

hard agree!! i will read reconciliation fics bc like… i do enjoy them getting to be a happy family/group but ultimately, i am firmly in the Jason Todd Was Right camp, &. serious work would need to be done for him to ever actually be part of the family again, bc the actual roots of his issues run DEEP. (and again! he has points!!)

and also same again on like… if i mention the batfamily dynamics in my fics, with the exception of au’s, jason’s relationship with bruce especially is still at least a little strained. he’s a member but also kind of an outsider and maybe he has complicated feelings on that sometimes but ultimately it’s bc his convictions / beliefs run deeper than his need /want of acceptance / belonging.

anyway sorry to dump a rant in your inbox but, i loved your tags & wanted to reply 💞

OUUGHH YES THO!! THANK YOU FOR RANTING, ALWAYS RANT IN MY INBOX STAY IN THIS SPACE WITH ME <333

(I'm about to have a mini-rant of my own, and disclaimer, it's largely informed by my terrible foundation of the UTRH movie + fandom osmosis + the occasional page/panel drop/arguments from other fans skdndndj sO GRAIN OF SALT THE SIZE OF RHODE ISLAND: )

Because yes yes absolutely! It would take serious work on Both sides for Jason to be brought back into the fold. They would both need to want it, and someone would have to be willing to bend on what they are ok with letting slide. Bruce would have to allow Jason his independence and divergence in philosophy; Jason would have to make concessions to Bruce's hard anti-murder stance.

There would have to be compromise, and reparations of some kind. They would have to actually talk and be able to listen. Apologies exchanged (mostly from Bruce because lmao) and a bunch of stuff people with the whole picture could probably tell me better lmao. ALL HARD ASKS

Because yes yes yes!! Jason's convictions and his beliefs ABSOLUTELY run deeper than his desire for acceptance. That's not-so-low-key the biggest obstacle for both him and Bruce in their ever reconciling. It's why Talia was able to manipulate him at all (idk the specifics of that, but details), it's why he hatched a deeply convoluted plan to get back at Bruce and the Joker and fuck over Black Mask in one fell swoop.

He wanted to confront Bruce with the consequences of letting Joker run around even after committing a deeply heinous and personal crime. Show him that taking a more intense and hands on approach and cracking down HARD on the crime families in Gotham would have more immediate results than what Bruce did. And that's not even getting into the Robin stuff yet lol

I don't personally agree per se with Jason's stance on murder and crime fighting lmao - but I also think he has a goddamn point, especially in this universe. In the world of batman, where death can be impermanent and supervillains pull all kinds of heinous, torturous bullshit, Jason has a lot of righteous and justified anger about how Bruce does things, on top of his hurt and betrayal over how both he and his death were treated.

Bruce's stance makes sense to me too, in a 'everyone deserves a second chance' and 'no one is beyond redemption' and 'its a slippery slope' perspective. But at some point you have to wonder about accountability. About what's acceptable. When the Joker is an unrepentant, murderous, sadistic criminal who has demonstrated that he cannot be adequately jailed or rehabilitated, what do you do? Do you ever give up on him? When is enough enough? Is the death penalty ever justifiable?

It's what makes Jason vs Bruce's arguments interesting and tragic to me, because from Jason's perspective, he is seeking retribution for himself as a victim. He is an avenger for victims failed by the system as it stands. And the system fails a lot of people. It needs to change. (And it's something being felt very strongly by a lot of people rn IRL which makes Jason's ideals v sympathetic.)

But from Bruce's perspective, Jason has given up. He has lost hope in the inherent goodness of people. He no longer seeks to find the good in people; he has decided that there exists instead a sharp dichotomy, that there is such thing as a bad person who deserves to die for what they've done, and for being bad. As opposed to seeing deeply injured people who need help, even when you find them repulsive. Rotten work, that.

Bruce sees the end of the path that Jason is on, and it's a bullet that Jason puts in his own brain - because if there are good people and bad people, and bad people deserve to die... won't Jason lump himself in with the bad people eventually? (I am once again standing on my 'Jason Todd wants to die on some level' soapbox)

Anyway, all this to say - there is a sharp divide in Bruce and Jason's methods/beliefs that makes their reconciliation impossible if neither of them is willing to budge. And when they both see budging as a terrible thing to do, a failure to the very people they are dedicating their lives to protecting...well.

It's gonna take a lot of angst and a lot of work.

[mariana-oconnor]

The Boscombe Valley Mystery pt 3

So, we're looking for a man with a limp and a blunt pen knife... Surely there can't be many of them in the countryside!

"Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a cigar and let me expound."

Just sit there and let me talk at you, Watson. There's a good chap.

Odd to see Holmes actually asking for advice, though. Usually he only does this to try to get Watson to work through his method and come to the right conclusion - at least that we've seen so far. And he stated at the end of the last section that he had the solution. So what does he need advice for? Does he think that the murderer should go free again?

Or is the murderer the guy who is dying?

Clearly James McCarthy, Ken extraordinaire, shouldn't be hanged for a crime he didn't commit, though. And if the man is already dying then is the death penalty really a penalty to him?

"One was the fact that his father should, according to his account, cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying reference to a rat."

Ah yes, my theory did not explain the rat.

Hmmmmmm...

"But 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was someone who had been in Australia."

Check.

This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand over part of the map. "What do you read?" "ARAT," I read. "And now?" He raised his hand. "BALLARAT."

Aha, a place name... now I read it, I do remember that... unless I'm remembering something from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Yeah, I think they go to Ballarat in that.

But, more importantly, my theory is still valid and has yet to be disproved.

Less likely it's Turner, though, because why would he specify Ballarat when the son knows Mr Turner well?

"By an examination of the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal."

OK, now that's just mean. This story is giving me whiplash about his and Lestrade's relationship. Are they friends or do they hate each other? Although with Holmes, calling someone an imbecile might not even be an insult. But it does seem particularly insulting here.

"Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the direction in which all this points. The culprit is—" "Mr John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor.

I mean, I'd argue that all Holmes' evidence is circumstantial and couldn't stand up in court. There could be any number of people in the country that smoke cigars with a holder, haven't sharpened their pen knife in a while and who had a limp on that particular day. And the reference to Ballarat doesn't even have to be the name of the murderer. The guy was struck from behind. Are we even sure he saw his murderer? We need more than that.

But mostly I quoted this bit because I love the dramatic cut with Watson about to say the name and then DUN DUN DUUUUUN the person the audience must assume the evidence points to is right here! It's very cinematic, not that that would have been a thing at the time. But it seems very cinematic now.

"I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a jail."

OK, fine, so it was Turner. The old woman was innocent.

Still think she was up to no good, though.

It's really jarring to see diabetes here as a definite death sentence, even though I know that before insulin, and then synthetic insulin, it essentially was. It's just... We're all so used to the use of insulin that it feels strange to see it written about like death is a certain thing. I don't think about my friends who have diabetes as being particularly sick, because they have the tools to manage their condition.

I looked up the timeline of insulin and it was first manufactured in 1922 and it was the 1923 Nobel Prize for Medicine that was awarded for the discovery of its use. Synthetic insulin didn't come around until the 60s. At the time of this story the only treatments were diet and exercise. I assume, because of his age, he has type 2 diabetes, not type 1. Either way, it's strange thinking how far medicine has come in just over 100 years.

(Of course, access to insulin is another thing entirely... I'm over here in the UK with free healthcare and cheap medicine, so there's that.)

"I was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang."

I'm not feeling particularly sympathetic for Mr Turner so far. 'Oh, I got in with bad companions and I was drunk.' This does seem a little bit like you're making excuses for your choices. And then the end of this little description doesn't exactly scream 'remorseful'.

"There were six troopers and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the first volley."

Yeah... that's still murder, my dude.

"There I parted from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to make up for the way in which I had earned it."

I mean, great. But still... from your story it sounds like you killed a lot of people before him and then went on to live a comfortable life with the money you stole from them. I mean... it is all a little 'kill the billionaires' with the gold and stuff, but that was only one of the highway robberies you committed. And it seems like that was the Big Score, so before that you were just robbing and killing anyone who looked like they might have something you wanted?

So glad you chose to turn over a new leaf. Very happy that you were aiming for a redemption arc. I'm just not sure that murdering a man, even if he is a blackmailer, is the best sort of redemption arc to have.

"But there I was firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that was enough."

And that's all a bit mean to poor James, and a little bit eugenicist. It's not James's fault his father was a blackmailer. And if you believe in that sort of genetic predisposition, then what does it say about Alice being your daughter, given the crimes you committed? Murderers in glass houses, you know...

"He was urging his son to marry my daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she were a slut from off the streets."

See, this is what I meant when I said the conversation could definitely have been relevant to the murder. Because clearly it was.

"Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we may never be exposed to such a temptation."

Can you judge him just a little bit for being hypocritical? Just a little bit?

"...if McCarthy is condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or dead, shall be safe with us."

Holmes really doesn't like blackmailers. That's fair. And he clearly believes in second chances. I'm still a bit struck by how Mr Turner started off his entire story by refusing to acknowledge his own culpability in things. Sure, he says he tried to make up for it by doing a 'little good', but this is such a weird story.

On the one hand, yes, second chances are important and Mr Turner does appear to have made the most of his.

On the other hand, he doesn't seem to have taken responsibility for his actions and he went on to live happily with the money he got by killing people.

And also he's like 'Alice is perfect' but 'James is cursed'...

Eh... I'm not sure he deserves to get off for this one. Mr McCarthy was a terrible person, but the thing he was blackmailing Mr Turner about was literal murder. Multiple counts of it. But then I don't agree with the death penalty at all.

I just... this is weird. I am in a quandary. From a purely fictional perceptive, good for him killing McCarthy, who seems to have been terrible and good for him for turning his back on his life of crime and becoming a better person. Which is what we really want from the justice system, tbf. So I guess I'm talking myself into being on his side.

I just... I'm not fully on his side. I just can't quite commit to it. Guy says he was trying to make up for how he earned his money, but it just doesn't quite ring true to me.

"Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'"

What the fuck kind of dark secrets lurk in Holmes' past that he thinks he could be blackmailed about? Has Holmes murdered people? Seriously... there's a direct comparison here between a man who confessed to being in a highway gang that robbed and killed people and Holmes, made by Holmes himself. 👀

James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their past.

Oh, a happy ending! James and Alice are happy together, in spite of the fact that Turner really didn't want that to happen (ha!). BUT, Watson... Watson... You have once again published the secret thing for all the world to read. Watson, they might read this. Watson?

[waheelawhisperer]

Moar violence asks (7, 14, 21, 22) and Bluebonnet + Feilan asks (3, 9, 16, 17). Feel free to ignore/trim if some/most are too open-ended or annoying.

Violence Asks:

7) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

RWBY: I can't say I truly hate any RWBY characters (even the ones who are utterly repulsive as human beings are at least decent as characters), much less because of the way the fandom acts about them, but there are certainly characters I like less than I ordinarily would for this reasons. I like Ironwood less because his stans are obnoxious and somehow think his plan would've worked (Team RWBY was right to fight and wrong to evacuate later and I will die on this hill) and that Team RWBY are the villains of the show, I like Jaune less because the Jaune harem people are incredibly fucking weird, I like Taiyang less because people keep insisting that his advice to Yang didn't suck and that Yang's disability arc was written well, I like Sun less because Black Sun shippers are annoying, and I like Blake and Yang less because Bumbleby shippers are annoying, there are so goddamn many of them that even a vocal minority is difficult to escape, and the worst of them will excuse any flaws in the show's writing or criticism thereof because the sapphics kissed and then buy out merch made by a company named after a homophobic slur.

Arknights: I don't like Platinum, and every time I see someone ship her with Nearl or Blemishine, I like her a little less.

Fate: I already hated Emiya Shirou but the way the Fate Stay Night fanbase gushes over him makes me want to run him over with a bulldozer. I also can't stand Waver or Iskandar after a former friend talked them up for years, they never once lived up to his hype, and then he tried to convince me that AI art was a victimless crime.

College Football: I already hated Baylor because of its athletics department's numerous scandals, but their fans are shitty self-centered entitled asshats on top of being mostly Evangelicals. They will forgive anything if the money sports win.

I absolutely despise Penn State for the same reason (scandals) but their fans are fucking horrendous and keep insisting that the head coach involved was a great guy, actually, and that their program didn't deserve the death penalty.

I was actually fond of LSU until they played Texas at DKR and then their players faked cramping/injuries because they were getting gassed and the coach whined about the visitor's locker room being too hot. Then two of their most recent coaches turned out to either have committed or enabled sexual assault, so there's that.

Georgia fans got significantly more obnoxious after they won a national championship, but they were barking at kids even before that, so they've pretty much always sucked.

Iowa state fans were actually tolerable until they had one good season and Texas/OU announced they were changing conferences from the Big 12 to the SEC, at which point they decided to be the whiniest and most annoying of the Hateful 8 despite mediocrity literally being the height of their program's accomplishments.

The Boys: Homelander and Soldier Boy are shitty people and good characters, but every time I see right-wing dipshits idolizing either of them or the newest batch of reader x fanfiction, I hate them both a little more.

14) that one thing you see in fics all the time

I mostly read RWBY fic when I read fic at all, but there's a list of annoying bullshit a mile long and about half of it comes from Coeur Al'Aran. Most of the rest is fanon that gained too much steam, but I really don't want to go into all of it right now.

21) part of canon you think is overhyped

RWBY: Volume 8 was dogshit and I don't understand why people enjoy it.

Bumbleby is overhyped to hell and back as a supposedly-amazing slowburn when I'd give it a B at best in terms of execution. Like very other fucking plotline in RWBY, it suffers from a persistent refusal to align resources and scope, prioritize specific elements of the show, or give anything major the time and focus it deserves. It's fine, though - the fanbase will fill in the blanks with headcanon and then claim that means the writing (that doesn't exist) is brilliant and anyone who thinks otherwise just lacks media literacy, just like they do every other time RWBY's writing fails.

Salem honestly sucks as a villain and simultaneously feels underwhelming and insurmountable at the same time because the writers dropped the ball on Volume 8 so Ironwood and Cinder could be the main villains for some fucking reason.

Arknights: The sociopolitical commentary isn't nearly as deep or incisive as tumblr likes to pretend and frequently fails to grow beyond "capitalism/imperialism/bigotry/Western society bad" like congrats you've identified and portrayed a problem but your solutions frequently either suck or don't exist

The prose is average and also 50% of it is unnecessary. Being obscure is not the same as being good.

Fate Grand Order: All of Lostbelt 5 was overhyped as shit to be honest

Elden Ring in general is overrated as hell and suffers from most of the Standard FromSoft Flaws, but that's more a consequence of the frankly absurd amount of hype it got rather than it being a bad game.

College Football: TCU had one good season with a bunch of Covid super-seniors, I doubt they'll have more than 8 wins this season. Sonny Dykes isn't the next Nick Saban until he actually manages to replicate this level of success consistently.

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Chapter 7 tells us that Dobermann is afraid of heights and Nearl is a goober who puts too much power into her Arts sometimes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OC Asks:

3) What’s something pointless/petty/unimportant that IRRATIONALLY ANNOYS THE HELL out of your OC?

Bluebonnet hates the sound of dripping water it drives her insane.

Feilan 1 absolutely hates it when people beat around the bush and try to play/manipulate him instead of just being forthright about what they want, which is a direct response to several flirtatious women trying to use sex appeal and wheedling to get him to do their bidding

Feilan 2 gets agitated during sparring/combat because his parents have a very active sex life and aren't really careful about hiding it from their children and the various grunts and gasps and shit people make while fighting sound too much like sex noises to him. He's walked in on too much kinky middle-aged fornication to not have hangups about physical intimacy.

Feilan 3 does not like it when people grab him by the wrist. That is a Yang and Ruby zone only.

Feilan 4 hates sushi to the point where being around it forces him to fight not to be violently ill because raw animal protein of any kind reminds him of the way Team RWBY was when he first met them and the fact that he spent a good semester facing the very real threat of becoming food.

9) What would cause your OC to choose to do something petty/pointlessly cruel?

Bluebonnet is generally very sweet and friendly even to people who aren't particularly pleasant, but her inability to Pull Bitches is a sore spot for her. Make fun of her for it and she'll get real nasty, real quick. Also, don't prank her, because she will escalate (though she will be appropriately horrified if she accidentally goes too far).

Feilan: Alcohol is the big one, especially for Feilan 1, and especially if he's drinking because something bad happened to him recently. He has a bad habit of taking out his stress on the closest available target and can get real mean when he's drunk.

Hurt someone he specifically cares about or just innocent people in general and Feilan has no issues with visiting retribution upon you in kind. Do not attack Beacon Academy. It will not end well for you.

On a more lighthearted note, antagonize him or act like a dick and he will respond in kind.

For Feilan 1 in particular, you can add being General James Ironwood or anyone associated with General James Ironwood to the list. Feilan 1 and Jimmy do not like each other at all for a variety of reasons, and Feilan tends to be at his pettiest when dealing with Ironwood and his military. This has bitten him in the ass at least once.

16) How strong or weak is your OC’s Impulse control? What’s the worst thing that happened because of their impulsivity or inability to be so?

Bluebonnet is not impulsive in high-stakes situations like combat (she's a very good soldier/Huntress/leader when the situation calls for it) but is otherwise the embodiment of "fuck it we ball" in social in social situations (she will, for example, happily go on a bar crawl the night before midterms if her friends rope her into hijinks). Bluebonnet lives for Shenanigans and her grades in school suffered for it.

Feilan is not particularly impulsive at all. His stupid decisions are mostly carefully considered and planned out in advance, and normally he can't be impulsive if he wants to survive. The main thing that makes him impulsive is the presence and attention of attractive women.

17) How does your OC sabotage themselves? 

Bluebonnet sees or hears something, thinks "this seems fun!", and then later realizes that it was not, in fact, fun (or that it was fun but also a terrible idea). She mostly has her shit together otherwise, but the big way she screws herself over is via her love life. She's chronically dateless and easily infatuated, and those two things combine to make her very frustrated and prone to tunnel visioning on whatever she thinks will result in a relationship. She will do almost anything she's asked if someone pretty smiles at her and desperately needs a friend around to knock some sense into her at all times.

Feilan gets it into his head that he wants to be a Huntsman despite having no training at age 17 and all his problems arise from there. He starts his stories by finding a way to get into Beacon anyway, but those ways aren't strictly legal and are often very dangerous. The main conflict up until the Battle of Beacon typically involves him trying not to blow his cover. Feilan, stop lying to people. It will be healthier for you in the long run.

[everythingkimhongjoong]

I saw that on Twitter people were actually complaining about the time Kris Wu got. Apparently they think he should have gotten more.

Getting 13 years for rape is a very long and heavy sentence. Seeing as in many places rape is a crime that gets you 5 years or less. Especially when you are a celebrity. I'm American, so I constantly have to encounter how celebrity men are basically able to do whatever they please to women and simply walk away with a slap on the wrist. The me too movement changed nothing, it just brought this type of behavior to the public.

In South Korea, we have all seen how marijuana can get you a longer jail sentence, than assaulting a woman. There is a whole big problem of men filming women without their knowledge and the police and government don't wanna treat it as something that is even serious. Male idols assault women, then they get probation, go to the army. Then after two years, they walk out of the army and everyone seemingly just forgets about the crime that they committed.

Also, seeing as these women on Twitter are not the victims of Kris Wu, I don't understand why they think they should have the power to decide his prison sentence. I asked one of them what did they expect? Did they want China to give him the death penalty?. Of course, they blocked me after that, because these types of folks just like to tweet crap, while never wanting to be confronted about what they are tweeting.

This is a situation where China did good. They did way more than what America or South Korea would have done. Not only is Kris serving time, but he is also getting deported from the country. With his criminal record, he also shouldn't be able to come to America as well. So hopefully Kris will stay in Canada, where he career can officially die.

[scotianostra]

David Myles was executed for incest, at Edinburgh, on the 27th of November, 1702.

David Myles got the death penalty for having a relationship with his sister, Margaret. His execution notice told historians plenty about Myles's moral convictions and less about the veracity of the claims made against him.

As reported in the Broadside, he said at the scaffold:;

“Good People, give ear a while, I now confess before you all, That I was a very bad Liver, and a great Sabbath breaker, and not only a Sabbath breaker, but also a Swearer and Blasphemer of the Holy Name of GOD; and Guilty both of Incest and Fornication.”

There was no Broadside printed about his sister, who was also executed for the crime, a week before, perhaps due to the fact that, according to this report;

“She Dyed very obduredly and obstinately, and gave little or no satisfaction to the Spectators”

There’s nothing like a good bit of repentance to keep  a Calvinist crowd happy at an execution! Don’t expect details of the foul deeds though, in bygone days in Scotland it WAS all about the religion and repentance! 

For almost 300 years until the mid-19th century, broadsides filled the place occupied today by the tabloid press.

Originally they were single sheets of paper, printed on one side only, designed to be read unfolded and posted up in public places.

At first they were used for the printing of royal proclamations, acts, and official notices. Later they became a vehicle for political agitation and what is now known as ‘popular culture’, such as ballads and scaffold speeches.

Reports recounting dark and salacious deeds were popular with the public, and, like today's sensationalist tabloids, sold in large numbers. Crimes could generate sequences of sheets covering descriptive accounts, court proceedings, last words, lamentations and executions as they occurred. As competition was fierce, immediacy was paramount, and these occasions provided an opportunity for printers and patterers to maximise sales.

Here are the whole details as printed on this particular  broadside.

THE LAST

Words and Confession

o f

DAVID   MYLES

Who was Executed for Incest, at Edinburgh, on the 27 Day of November, 1702.

DAvid Myles, having commited Incest with his Sister Margaret Myles, both were Condemn'd to be Hanged : the Woman upon the Twentieth and the Man upon the twenty Seventh of November, She Dyed very obduredly and Obstinately, and gave little or no satisfaction to the Spectators ; But he (a young man, not 2o years) dyed very Seriously and Christianly; for when he was brought to the place of Execution, Mr. James Heart Exhorted to Re-pentance, and now at his last Hour to confess, what he had to say, concerning his Crime before the People. Whereupon he went to the Eastern end of the scaffold, and said, Good People, give ear a while, I now confess before you all, That I was a very bad Liver, and a great Sabbath breaker, and not only a Sabbath breaker, but also a Swearer and Blasphemer of the Holy Name of GOD; and Guilty both of Incest and Fornication. I got a very ill Example from my Parents; Therefore I desire all you that are Parents to give a good Copy to your Children and desire that you would all pray to GOD for me; Where-upon the Auditors cryed out, Lord have Mercy upon his Soul ; And Mr. Heart Prayed to this purpose, viz. That God would give him a sight of his Sins, and open a Door of Mercy to him and that the infinit Goodness might speedily prevent him, &c. Then he sung the first 4 Verses of the 51 Psalm : which being done, he went to the Western end of the Scaffold, and earnesily prayed to GOD, to pardon all his sins, to wash him, and cleanse him from all his Iniquities, thro- his mercy, and with the Blood of Jesus Christ his Saviour: and that he was unworthy to come before so holy a GOD, for he was a great Sinner and Transgressor: His Sins were great and many, but tho' he was weary and heavy laden, yet hoped he would find Rest; and tho' his Body suffered upon the Gibbet, yet he hoped his soul would go to Glory, &c. Then he went up the Ladder, and weeping sore, entreated the Spectators to take warning by him, and avoid Sin, left they fall in the same snare. Then he said, O ye that are Parents of Children, God grant ye may cast them a better Copy than ever I got; And all ye that are young folk, who have your Years before your hands, seek God, and fly all Sin, for one Sin brings on another O all of you that see me this day, Take warning by me, and put up your petitions to God for me. Then Mr Heart prayed earnestly for him again ; who, when be had done, enquired at him if he was wiling to dye ? He answe ed, Ay, ay, I am very willing: my Offence is great, very great: I do not deserve nor desire to live, for I deserve both Torment here, and Torment hereafter : I am very weary of my Sins. Being enquired at, if he thought his Sentence just? or if he pardoned the Judges? He answered, My Sentence is very Just, I forgive the Judges, and all the World, and God forgive them. Mr. Heart asked him, what hope he had of his going to Heaven, or which, of the promises of the Bible he could lippen to, or rely upon. He answered, many, many, but the particular places do not Strik me in the mind, at present, Mr. Heart said, you told me in prison, of that in the 11 of Matthew, Came un- to me all ye that Labour, and are heavy Laden,and I will give you rest. whereupon he said, I indeed am in Labour, and am heavy laden, but I hope God will give me rest, and receive my Soul in Glory He confessed again, that he had been a great Sabbath breaker : After which Mr.Heart recommended him to GOD

[autobot2001]

Painful Death

@themerrywhumpofmay: box @mediwhumpmay: first night in hospital Tw; drugs, murder, death (Snippet from Hidden Killer)

A man walks down a row of storage units, looking for number forty.   There's little in the storage unit, but the man is looking for a particular box. "I knew It was wise to copy the files," he whispers once he finds the box, "hopefully there's something in here that'll help the police. "Too bad they'll never find the box," a voice taunts. The man recognizes the voice and panics, clutching the box close to him. "You should have been given the death penalty!" He yells. "I believe you have evidence that you've committed a federal crime in that box." The man can run out of the storage unit and down the street. Hoping to reach the buddy street before the man chasing him does anything.

The man makes it to the busy street, running on the side. He doesn't make it far before being tackled to the ground. Resulting in losing his grip on the box. The box lands on the ground, the lock remaining intact.   "I could kill you no problem," the man taunts, "but I'm returning the beating you did to me." The man is used as a punching bag. Not for long until several cars park on the side of the road to stop the attack. The attacker gets one last good punch to the head, knocking the man out.

The man wakes up, slowly realizing he's in a hospital room. A nurse walks in, pleased the patient they came to check on is awake. They leave to get a doctor.

"You've been unconscious for three hours. Aside from a serious concussion, you're fine, but I want to keep you here at least overnight. Do you remember who you are?" "My name is Charles Curtis. I was targeted because of — the box! Where's the box!" "Police custody. Why must you have the box?" An officer walks into the room, carrying the familiar box. "Care to explain why this box contains medical records?" The officer asks. "Intuition. I worked at the asylum that burned down two years ago. Not during my shift, but Austin hoped I'd be there. I copied his files, hoping they could help the police get him. I should have brought the box to the police when he started attacking..." Charles stops talking, realizing what he thought was a great idea two years ago now has him in serious trouble. "That's enough," the doctor demands, "he looks fine but has a serious concussion." The officer leaves.

"An expensive kill," the drug dealer comments, "we could have worked out a deal." "No, this is going to be worth the price," Austin smiles. "Fine, it's your five hundred and fifty-eight dollars." "Actually, this will look like my victim made the purchase."

Charles tries to rest, but his mind worries about Austin's next move. Knowing Austin will not give up until he's dead. "Death or life in prison," Charles sighs. "I can decide for you." Charles panics but has no time to react before Austin pins him down with one hand and puts a piece of tape over his mouth. Two others cuff his hands to the rails of the bed. "Be ready to remove all evidence and run," Austin tells them as he prepares the syringe. Enjoying Charles' muffled screaming, "a nice cocaine injection. Three, two, one, move!" Austin cuts the line for the nurse call button before the three leave. Austin would love to watch Charles die, but leaving a camera behind would risk being caught. Charles knows he has no time to get out into the hallway for help. Tears roll down his face.

Within minutes Charles feels the effects of the drug. Before he can't move, just me, Charles writes a vital note. Struggling with chest pain and feeling like his heart is exploding. Knowing even if nurses hear his scream, there's nothing they can do. Yo Charles' luck, his scream is heard. Several doctors and nurses rush into the room. By now, Charles struggles to breathe. The medical staff work as fast as possible, fearing only a blood test or scab will tell them what's happening, but their patient only has a little time. A nurse rushes to get a crash cart.

When the nurse returns to the room, Charles is having a seizure. The doctor by the bed thought Charles was only unconscious once the seizure ended. "No pulse; we have a code blue."

"Ten minutes with no change," the doctor sighs, "time of death, ten-thirty p.m." "Something is not right about this," one nurse comments. "An autopsy will tell us." "Sir," another nurse calls out, holding a piece of paper. "This adds to the mystery. The note reads Donald Garza is in danger. Protect him. Even has where this guy lives written." "This is going to sound crazy, but this suggests someone came in here. The only way Charles' condition could determine that he's now dead is by injecting something into his IV. Call security and the police."

Austin exits the hospital and walks down the alleyway. Police cars speed by. "He's dead, perfect. You're next, Donald."

[silver-moon1]

International Travel & Arrest

The two movies really opened my eyes to what can happen when a U.S citizen commits a crime in an international territory (whether it was intentional or unintentional). I learned that the way we handle crimes in the U.S. is nothing compared to how some countries handle crime and prison sentences. Let alone the fact that the US embassy can only really make sure you aren't abused or starved while in prison, but other than that they can't do much else.

One thing that frustrated me during the Bangladesh episode was watching her fight for the roses because they were a gift. Had she thrown them out the drugs wouldn't have been strapped to her and she may have never gone to prison in the first place. The episode made me realize that if you get arrested in a different country you really have little to no say in what happens from the point of being arrested and so on. They take you from one facility to the next and don't fill you in on much otherwise. You don't even get as much as a phone call. I felt like as a U.S. citizen you would still be treated as such even in a different country, but I was very wrong after seeing these movies. It was interesting that the Bangladesh prison allowed the man from the US embassy to visit her every month, but it frustrated me that he wasn't the one to get her out of prison. How could he do so little for a US citizen? Especially when they kept insinuating that they have the death penalty and she could potentially get it. If I were her I would've felt so paranoid of getting the death penalty for one dumb mistake. The scene when the prison guards took coo-coo in the middle of the night for her execution was incredibly unsettling. Especially when they turned off the lights as well to essentially let everyone know what was going on. It was also very difficult to feel sorry for her because TSA in this instance was only doing their job in order to keep mass transit safe and arrest her for smuggling drugs. It was ultimately her fault although her situation and desperation for money was very sad. During the whole episode I though that it was interesting when she began to read/learn their language and appreciate the culture while in prison. I think this was an act to make the most of things and maintain her sanity, but it also gave her a different perspective on life that she wouldn't have had without going to prison. The films are similar in this aspect because both women wouldn't take what happened back because it changed them for the better.

In the "Brokedown Palace" what surprised me the most was that the girls were given a statement in Thai, which they couldn't read. It was like they wanted to trick them into a confession which isn't fair at all considering they didn't commit the crime they were accused for. I also could not believe that at the end of the movie she took her sentence and the length of her friends' sentence so that her friend would be free to go home. The entire movie felt as though they had no chance of redemption or glimpse of freedom in sight. How could they not find the guy responsible, who framed them for their crime? It was also very interesting how food had to be earned and that visits were very informal and outdoors. The conversations were not private. You basically had to yell over people just to hear what they were saying.

I think overall travelers/tourists have a responsibility when they travel abroad to become knowledgeable about the norms and customs of the country they are visiting. It is important to be respectful and maintain awareness of others and how to behave while in a different country. Just because you are a U.S. citizen doesn't give you the freedom to do what you want with no consequences as a result of your actions. So do research before you travel on what you can and more importantly CANNOT do in a foreign country. Something as simple as tipping a server can be seen as disrespectful and rude. So do your part and do the research.