Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Right, so the person who gets to determine if he's suffered adequately for the wrong he committed is the victim of that wrong. It's an interesting way of doing things, certainly. Our justice system doesn't put the onus on the victim to determine when the perpetrator has been adequately punished, and there's a reason for that, but some people think that should play more of a role. I'm not really sold, because restorative justice models seem a bit utopian to me.
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Sort of a little. Not when they have been adequately punished but by law every victim in Canada has a right to present their impact statement and the court must take it into account for sentencing considerations. At least that's what's written down. Whether the impact statements do impact sentencing probably depends on the judge I presume.
And usually the most apparent ones where the victims and/or their impact statements do impact sentencing are usually for the opposite reason, i.e. the family forgiving the offender who killed their loved one in a drunk driving accident and getting a more lenient sentence.
I do agree where you're coming from because if someone stole a bike and the victim wanted his eyes torn out for it, that's obviously something the justice system can't accommodate. So we can't have maniacs deciding the sentencing, and it's also unfair to the 'rational' victims to put the burden on them. But it's not like there's no say at all.
And of course this isn't the justice system and the NHL isn't a right. If the NHL or the Coyotes decide that Miller isn't good for business, that's up to them.
But he biggest things, in my opinion, working against Miller is that the victim forgave the one bully. They went through hell but were still able to forgive Hunter (who I assume did not have a 9 year pattern of bullying like Miller but still). If they came out and just said both boys deserve to rot in hell during their impact statement, meh not much forgiveness up for grabs, but they took an opportunity to praise Hunter for his remorse and clearly forgave him. Forgiveness was possible, at least at one point.
Second, and maybe more important, is that Miller, in my opinion, was very misleading with his statement to the NHL teams. Calling his victim a friend, seemingly insinuating everything was in the past, a single action, his remorse was unquestionably, forgiveness was found, that's what he was telling the NHL teams in so many words. He wanted to act like that was the case, well now he needs to go and receive this redemption he was so keen to tell the NHL teams about.