Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: The Quality of Mercy https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address Ben Austin https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=41285#post41285 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=41285#post41285 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:38:05 +1300 InternationalObserver https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=41260#post41260 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=41260#post41260 as an aside ...

I'm getting increasingly irked bythe continued commentaries by NBR media writer David Cohen (no link, NBR don't put their content online, see the Feb1st issue for the column) who has a bug up his butt about the NZ MSM pleading for every convicted killer to go…

]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:32:27 +1300 Peter Ashby https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40820#post40820 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40820#post40820 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:37:01 +1300 Graeme Edgeler https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40795#post40795 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40795#post40795

The law protects small time crimes that keep there noses cleans rights to tell porky's about there past.

Basically. Anyone who's ever gotten a prison term can't get one, and anyone with a conviction for a specified offence – basically sexual offending – can't get one (those who've gotten prison…

]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:21:03 +1300 Kyle Matthews https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40749#post40749 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40749#post40749 involves people who to some extent..." ]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:36:30 +1300 Kyle Matthews https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40748#post40748 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40748#post40748

Quite possibly. I guess I was mostly dismissive of that idea based on the particular clean slate system we have in New Zealand. A system whereby people could apply to a court to have their record expunged after a period of blameless excellence has something going for it.

Yes. I…

]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:35:42 +1300 Graeme Edgeler https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40745#post40745 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40745#post40745

I the asked for a discharge with out conviction on the grounds that the conviction would unlock Stefan's clean slate.

It's not come up for me, but I've thought about instances where it could be used in a sentencing. Yours was one, but one going the other way is that…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:51:57 +1300 Graeme Edgeler https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40742#post40742 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40742#post40742

get lots of publicity...

To be fair, he got two recommendations for clemency before all the recent publicity.

Seems like a really good case for some sort of clean slate legislation...

Quite possibly. I guess I was mostly dismissive of that idea based on the particular clean slate system we…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:40:05 +1300 Kyle Matthews https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40733#post40733 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40733#post40733 Seems like a really good case for some sort of clean slate legislation to be honest Graeme.

He might get a pardon, but there's probably thousands of people in America who have got similarly caught by something silly they did when they were young. Do they all have to go…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:48:27 +1300 Shep Cheyenne https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40721#post40721 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40721#post40721 So the yanks use pardons as a release valve for their pressure cooker of a justice system. Fair enuf we would follow them on this as well.

Would you be in favour of US styled pardons or the rehashing of old cases being talked about at the mo?

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:36:13 +1300 Graeme Edgeler https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40720#post40720 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40720#post40720

It's an admission that a legal system has failed in some way ... a guilty person over-punished.

Not necessarily. The punishment might have been appropriate, but its effects are now too great. Anthony Circosta is a potential example of that – a 13-year-old pleading guilty in a youth court and…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:35:48 +1300 Stuff n Things https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40695#post40695 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40695#post40695

My first reaction is that I don't like the idea of pardons. It's an admission that a legal system has failed in some way.

Maybe this is more of a problem where you've got a state law/federal law distiction. The views of a federal-level pardoner may be different to those…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:47:11 +1300 Kyle Matthews https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40689#post40689 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40689#post40689

President Bartlett commuted the sentences of 35 people

I was thinking about that episode as I started reading your piece. Ironically, the 36th person in that episode, who wasn't pardoned (and subsequently committed suicide) had (a step) parent who was major Democratic contributors. Their pardon was turned down on that…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:27:19 +1300 Lyndon Hood https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40681#post40681 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40681#post40681 I've recently come to realise, if not appreciate, what you might call the PR aspects of the justice system; the way the public demands satisfaction in a way that's not directly reflected by more higheaded interpretations.

A vaguely relevant story is something I read about James I when I was…

]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:51:06 +1300 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40680#post40680 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/legal-beagle-the-quality-of-mercy/?p=40680#post40680 Discussion from blog post.

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