Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
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Damnation without Cause
Posted on July 20, 2006 in Justice Mania Stigma
Two years ago, Kevin Marquis, 38, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to four charges of sexually assaulting two female students, one who was 14 and another who was 15. He also pleaded guilty to charges of child endangerment and the prohibited use of a computer.
In his request for a pardon hearing, Marquis argued that he wanted to use a bipolar disorder diagnosis as a defense in his case, but that his lawyer, Michael Craig, prevented him from doing so.
I might forgive a bipolar with no previous history of crime in the case of misdemeanors commited while in episode.* Marquis, however, stretches the utility of his diagnosis too far.
You see Marquis’s defense hurts me. It says that I am not to be trusted at all times because of my illness. Even if he was in episode, he still possesses some sense of right and wrong. I don’t feel Andrea Yates should be released in the wild of human companionship. If you make allowance for these, then the smartest thing for Society to do is to ensure that they are kept away from other people because they can’t control themselves in episode.
“I believe that these hearings should only be used in the case of a grievous miscarriage of justice,” said Gov. John Lynch. “That is obviously not the case (with Marquis). Justice was done, and I support the council’s decision.”
It would be a miscarriage if the death penalty was prescribed. Marquis and Yates might not deserve punishment because of their illness, but they should be locked up and watched.
And please don’t say that this is “typical bipolar behavior”. You damn me without cause when you say that.
*I had a friend who, when in mania, walked into a Payless shoe store and walked out with a pair of shoes — a different one on each foot. She was charged with a misdemeanor. She had no criminal record. That case should not have been pressed, but Payless shoes would not drop the charges. There you have a miscarriage of justice.
