Yeah.The role of the ‘defence’ lawyer is to plead mitigation, but more so, to provide a free and frank confession and expression of deep remorse. The PRC is big on remorse and rehabilitation.
Above all the Chinese consider crime as an injury to society and matter of deep shame,for the miscreant as and his/her entire family.
In imperial times, the entire family of say a traitor,would also be executed. The same in feudal Japan
For the longest time I felt life long imprisonment without the possibility of parole was far worse than the death penalty. I then watched a few documentaries of people on death’s row in the USA.
More then one of the inmates here are begging for swift death. They have been through countless hearings, new investigations, that stay their execution, but does not get them off death row.
Imagine being sentenced to die, but not knowing when they will kill you. At first you are hopeful, maybe new evidence can come out, maybe some defense team can get you out on a technicality. None of it works, after years you get an execution date. Whoops new governor does not believe in death sentence, tries to avoid it. Hours before you are suppose to die, you get another stay of execution.
For some this can litteraly repeat dozens of times over decades. Knowing you are sentenced to die, but never being able to fully prepare, the death sentence hangs over you, we all die some day, but these people truly have no control over it. Suicide attempts are high in death row, if you do not get the suicide attempt right the first time, they wont give you the methods to try a 2nd time.
I say it depends on the person.
In the early 70’s I had a mate. After I’d known him for about 2 years, he told me he had been to prison. That at 20 he had served a year in Yatala, our maximum security prison. His crime was breaking and entering. (he was a professional burglar)
This is what he told me: When that cell door closes on the first day, you are soooo fucking sorry----that you got caught.
The next few weeks your feet don’t touch the ground as you learn the routine and fend off rapists.
After about three months, you are institutionalised. Prison becomes just the place where you live.
He was paroled after a year. They told him about a bunch of conditions.He told them to get fucked, but they paroled him anyway. So he pissed off,changed his name and established a new identity . Then he kept his head down. He was never re arrested.
That’s one bloke’s story. There must be hundreds, thousands, or different stories.
Cranks … more a candidate for a “Norway” type facility…
A dying breed. At least in the US. While opportunist still exist in regular numbers, the professional, the job is rapidly going extinct. Surveillance tech is getting too robust and common place. The hauls too small for the heightened risk. All the career pros are switching over to cyber crime and identity theft.
Maximum security prison for breaking and entering? Woah. Either Australia goes after burglars hard, or he got “the book thrown” at him, for a crime he commited at 18 or 19 most likely? Ouch his life sounds mostly over before it began, I guess him changing his identity helps. I am guessing this happened decades ago?
Yes, in the late 1960’s, but little has changed. Yatla remains the default prison in South Australia. Most convicted men spend their first few weeks to 6 months there. The Womens prison is only a few metres away. A new extension has just been finished.
There is only one other mens prison that I’m aware of, in Mt Gambier, 300 miles south,.That’s low security and where they send white collar criminals and non violent sex offenders. (to prevent them being killed in Yatla)
My mate was advised by his lawyer to ask the court to take 200 similar offences into account. If he hadn’t done that he would almost certainly gotten off with a suspended sentence.
The seemingly poor advice was given because if he did nor confess to those crimes, he could be later prosecuted for any or all of them if police found out. Having confessed, double jeopardy applies.
Ah makes a lot more sense now. I would like to think the system has improved since 1960’s, but I doubt it. What has improved though is the quantity and quality of available evidence.
When I first moved into my neighborhood, burgarleries and especially “home invasions” (no break in, a door/window left unlocked/open) was still a problem, but now that just about everyone has cheap internet connected cameras everywhere, that number in my neighborhood rapidly approached zero.
I would like to think so too. However, according to several lawyers I know socially that is not the case.