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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I don't know whether it's fair or excessive, but looking at it from a broad view:
Miller tortured another human being for half of his entire life, 9 years, both long before and long enough after a conviction for it, which he showed no remorse.
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Sure. We're counting when he was 8 years old in that time frame, though, right? Do you make any allowances or adjustment for that? Because you've carefully avoided saying anything of the sort in the way you've framed this, and it seems like that was done for a reason.
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As a result, his chances of having a career playing hockey are greatly diminished, if not removed entirely. But he can still: obtain a university education, get a relatively normal job, and live what most of us would consider a normal life, while continuing to play hockey for fun if he so chooses.
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Well, he's going to have to completely change his life trajectory. His dream is now closed off to him. He has to go through the rest of his life knowing that he could have done the thing he loves, but lost out on that opportunity. I would say his life was ruined. It doesn't mean he pursue a new, different life from the one he wanted, but the one he had has pretty much been destroyed.
Further, I'm not sure what you've said is true. I see that UND has said he can continue as a student there. Would you? With this hanging over your head, and having to worry about, every time you meet someone and introduce yourself, seeing them realize "oh, you're that guy... never mind, I don't want to know you"? I would think the only thing for it is to move to another university somewhere. He should probably change his name, too, because any employer for the rest of his life that googles him is getting this story, and no one needs to take that sort of risk. I don't think his life is going to be normal, as a result of this.
I'm not defending what he did, because obviously there's no defense for that. I was also repeatedly on the other end of bullying because my brain doesn't work like most people's (though not to this extent, certainly, and not on the basis of race). What he did was clearly atrocious and warranted punishment. I just think de-railing his life like this is excessive, particularly considering his age at the time. Since he's been an adult - which is a period less than a year - his only real transgression was his failure to apologize directly to the person he hurt. He hasn't publicly shown contrition. Apparently, for some people here, it's too late to do that now, so his window has closed.
That all seems too harsh to me, personally. Apparently some people disagree, which is fair enough. I assume those people would like to see changes to the Criminal Code to ensure that anyone else who behaves like Miller did as a minor, and fails to demonstrate adequate remorse, is faced with similar consequences.