Gender bias in sentencing?

[Asguard]

Woman gets six years for axe murder

ABC News
Posted 5 hours 45 minutes ago
Updated 3 hours 7 minutes ago


A Sydney woman who drugged her partner before hacking him to death with an axe has been sentenced to at least six years in jail.

The 52-year-old Maitland woman was found guilty of manslaughter after killing the man while he was sleeping in his Schofields home in Sydney's south west in December 2007.

A court heard that the woman's 14-year-old son also stabbed him. He was deemed not fit to stand trial due to mental illness.

She told police that the man abused her son by pouring boiling water on him and forcing him to eat his own vomit.

In sentencing her to a minimum of six years, the judge said that her crime was calculated and that he was not satisfied with her allegations about the way the man had conducted himself.

The judge said it was a brutal, calculated attack and not a crime of passion.

The woman will be eligible for parole in 2014.

Viewed 11\09\09 at 15:59

umm ok, so the judge doesnt belive the women. Then why the hell did he give such a light sentance?

 

[Tiassa]

We need a broader spectrum

umm ok, so the judge doesnt belive the women. Then why the hell did he give such a light sentance?

Because it's a manslaughter conviction:

It is very difficult to identify any pattern of sentencing: R v Hill (1981) 3 A Crim R 397 at 402. Limited assistance is to be derived from sentences in other cases: Taber v R (2007) 170 A Crim 427 at [102]. Statistical data on sentencing for manslaughter is similarly of limited assistance; reliance on such data has been described as “unhelpful and even dangerous”: R v Vongsouvanh [2004] NSWCCA 158 at [38].

(Judicial Commission of New South Wales)​

With a maximum sentence of twenty-five years, manslaughter seems to be a controversial issue in Australia. What broader evidence suggests gender bias in sentencing in Australia?
____________________

Notes:
Judicial Commission of New South Wales. "Manslaughter and Infanticide". Sentencing Bench Book. 2007. Judcom.NSW.gov.au. September 11, 2009. http://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/benchbks/sentencing/manslaughter.html

 

[Orleander]

If the crime is calculated, it would be first degree murder here. Worthy of the death penalty.
I wonder what an US manslaughter case would be considered in Australia. An ooopsy?

 

[Tiassa]

You take the case you have

If the crime is calculated, it would be first degree murder here. Worthy of the death penalty.
I wonder what an US manslaughter case would be considered in Australia. An ooopsy?

Manslaughter is what the they thought they could get her for. That's not so unusual, even in the States.

 

[Orleander]

so the DA decided on manslaughter while the judge said it was planned. I wonder why he didn't give a harsher sentence then, the max.

 

[Tiassa]

A matter of circumstance, perhaps

so the DA decided on manslaughter while the judge said it was planned. I wonder why he didn't give a harsher sentence then, the max.

I don't know. The Sentencing Bench Book wasn't particularly helpful with that.

Maybe they couldn't pin the killing blow on her specifically. The kid, apparently, stabbed him at least once.

We have only the barest details of the crime, and the law can get extremely bizarre in any respectably free country when applied to certain circumstances.

 

[Asguard]

interesting, i was about to pull you up on the 25 years untill i checked it. Strange that sentance for manslaughter isnt across the board. For instance the penelty in SA is:

13—Manslaughter


(1) Any person who is convicted of manslaughter shall be liable to be imprisoned for life or to pay such fine as the court awards or to both such imprisonment and fine.


(2) If a court convicting a person of manslaughter is satisfied that the victim's death was caused by the convicted person's use of a motor vehicle, the court must order that the person be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver's licence for 10 years or such longer period as the court orders.


(3) Where a convicted person is disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver's licence—


(a) the disqualification operates to cancel any driver's licence held by the convicted person as at the commencement of the period of disqualification; and


(b) the disqualification may not be reduced or mitigated in any way or be substituted by any other penalty or sentence.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/consol_act/clca1935262/s13.html

Thats the act i have read extensivly however when i read the NSW crimes act you are quite correct that its 25 years max.

I do understand your point about pattens in sentancing, however from anacdotal evidence of watching other domestic violence killings i am sure that if this was a man the sentance would be ALOT higher. For starters i doubt the charge ever would have been manslaughter.

BTW it might not have been the DPP who made it manslaughter. In Australia the DPP will charge you with every crime possable (for instance Murder, manslaughter, agrovated assult ect) and its up to the jury to determine which definition best fits the crime. In Australia jurys apear very reluctent to convict a women of murder against her partner sadly

 

[Nasor]

If the crime is calculated, it would be first degree murder here. Worthy of the death penalty.

A premeditated killing in the US can still be manslaughter (specifically, voluntary manslaughter), if there are mitigating circumstances.

 

[Orleander]

A premeditated killing in the US can still be manslaughter (specifically, voluntary manslaughter), if there are mitigating circumstances.

like what? A child raped by a parent and then killing them?

 

[Bells]

First some background..

According to a statement tendered by Chris Maxwell, QC, for the Crown, the two were greeted cordially by the man, 62. He and the woman, 53, had met through a church in 1993 and had been together until their relationship broke up in 1996. They had been engaged in Family Court proceedings for custody of the boy.

The two adults conversed politely before the woman went to the kitchen where she made a paste out of Panadeine Forte and another medication and put it into an orange drink.

She gave him the drink, which he said was bitter and sipped only twice before he went to bed.

The woman and the boy waited in a back room, where she fell asleep. She awoke just after 2.30am and said she did not want to "go through with it". But the son had said that if his mother loved him, she would.

They made a pact and swapped weapons, then attacked the man, who awoke and, though badly wounded, wrestled the axe from her and got to the door, where he called out.

The two escaped through a toilet window, leaving the man to bleed to death.

At Rouse Hill they got a lift to Parramatta and returned to Maitland, where they told people what they had done.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/woman-planned-exs-killing-court-told-20090713-ditx.html

Hmmm...

BTW it might not have been the DPP who made it manslaughter. In Australia the DPP will charge you with every crime possable (for instance Murder, manslaughter, agrovated assult ect) and its up to the jury to determine which definition best fits the crime. In Australia jurys apear very reluctent to convict a women of murder against her partner sadly

The reason she was given 6 years is because she pled guilty to manslaughter and the Crown, fearing the worst.. not guilty by reason of insanity in my opinion, probably accepted the plea. Notch carved and resume updated.

She should never have been tried at all.

Mr Maxwell said that the woman had claimed to interviewers that her then de facto husband had done "bizarre and brutal things" to her son, including dousing him in hot water and making him eat his own vomit.

Both the Crown and the defence have retained psychiatrists.

Both psychiatrists had concluded that the woman had been suffering delusions, believing things had happened that were not based on reality.

But the Crown psychiatrist, Dr Rosalie Wilcox, was not convinced that the woman felt compelled to kill her victim.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/mother-admits-killing-ex-with-axe-with-son-20090713-di51.html

 

[Asguard]

my apologies, i agree with you bells. If there were mental illness issues then she shouldnt have been held responcable

 

[Nasor]

like what? A child raped by a parent and then killing them?

There are many kinds of possible mitigating circumstances. Often it involves some extreme form of provocation - your example would certainly qualify. Exactly what does and doesn't qualify as sufficient provocation is mostly up to the courts.

It's also common for people to be charged with manslaughter rather than murder in cases of botched self-defense, where someone uses deadly force in self-defense when it isn't legally justified.