Sometimes you will hear a trial judge say no sentence he or she can render will bring a dead victim back to life.
This is obvious, and yet it's mentioned.
The mentioning often foreshadows what the grieving family, and society at large, will no doubt consider to be a light sentence.
A North Delta woman who was tried for second-degree murder but found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter was sentenced this week to 165 more days in jail, on top of the 100 she's already served.
Some might consider this to be a light prison sentence for taking a human life.
The woman stabbed her boyfriend in the chest.
The sentencing judge said the sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the crime.
Of course a judge's decree cannot raise the dead.
But what do sentences like these say about the value we place, albeit posthumously, on a human life?
- The Now