Courtroom Judge tells defendant to kill himself for the good of all
Ever so often you read something that restores some of your trust in the system. Ditrict Court Magistrate Judith Holtz managed to do just that. I’d say that as long as there are people like her working in the system, not all hope is lost.
We could do with many more of her sort though:
While receiving his third alcohol-related offense, 20-year-old Michael Robert Dickey also received a verbal lashing from District Court Magistrate Judith Holtz.
Dickey, who was attending a hearing for a Minor in Possession charge, had been stopped by police last June on Novi Road and blew nearly three times the legal limit for someone 21 or older.
Dickey, at a probation appointment on May 12, 2008, also tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines in a urine screen.
I’m not sure why the guy wasn’t back in jail, where he belonged, having just broken the probation rules. Maybe it wasn’t exactly a ‘Driving while black’ case but the other well-known ‘Driving drunk & stoned while white with rich parents’ variety of the same driving principle.
Anyway, this is what judge Judith said to the accused:
“Here is my suggestion to you, Mr. Dickey, climb up on the roof of your house and jump off. Either that or get in a bathtub filled with hot water and slash your wrists; then you will be dead. It will be cheaper, it will be faster and, in the long run, it will be less painful to anybody who cares about you, because that’s where you’re headed now, and the best part of it is you won’t take somebody else with you.”
Brilliant.
As I said, the world would be a much better place if it had more judge Judiths in it. Sadly, we have many more moral imbeciles like Michael Robert Dickey - in all colours and ages - than there are sensible and well-spoken judges.
Which is why the world is in such a mess in the first place, of course.
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