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After reading the whole translation linked in the GitHub issue, and being a father of 6 kids who love to make me practice being a judge every day as if I have n

After reading the whole translation linked in the GitHub issue, and being a father of 6 kids who love to make me practice being a judge every day as if I have nothing better to do, I’m convinced the judgment is reasonable. Even in our tiny library parking lot, I very often see people driving unreasonably fast between all the parked cars and the library door, often within a foot of the cars. Even if they are driving within the speed limit, there are constantly people coming out from between cars in a way that they can’t be detected by cars ahead of time, especially young children who don’t have the life experience to know to come out slower. It’s unquestionably dangerous to drive like that, yet I see it almost every single day. One of these days someone is going to get hurt. And in this case it looks like the same circumstances: a bit of reasonable cautiousness could have possibly prevented the driver from not seeing the people apparently laying on the crosswalk. Unless the driver followed every single procedure of the road perfectly, they are at fault to at least some degree. And someone is dead. It’s just a generally awful situation all around and nobody wins.

jakear 7y ago
The defendant actually admitted guilt, seemingly readily. His argument was not that he did nothing wrong, but instead that the sentence should be adjusted. Instead of the minimum jail time of 1.5 years, he was asking for the maximum suspension of driving privilege time of 3 years. If jail is for criminal activity and suspension of driving privilege is for poor driving practice, I can see his point. Of course it gets blurry when you have criminally poor driving practice.
- sdegutis 7y ago
  Yes but assuming negligent driving is the cause of death of another person, it seems that just not being able to drive for a while is not taking into account the seriousness of the permanence or the consequences of the events. I am no fan of jail and don’t wish prison on anyone. But justice seems to demand at least some kind of serious retribution for the loss of life if there is any accountability. For intentional murder people get 20+ years. Accidental death having only 1.5 seems much smaller than that. That’s all I’m saying. If it wasn’t negligent but reasonable then I agree that no jail time makes most sense. But slowing down at cross walks at night in Russia seems like a reasonable thing to expect. But I’m no judge.
jnbiche 7y ago
Yes, but this wasn't a library parking lot. This was a roadway, at night, and he appears to have been going the speed limit. And the victim was lying down on the roadway in dark clothes. And there was an oncoming car with high beams on according to the court findings. So you think that he should spend 1.5 years in a Russian prison for that? A sentence that may very well ruin him psychologically for the rest of his life? And/or leave him with TB and/or Covid-19? (and here I note that American prisons are not much better, if at all).
- blondin 7y ago
  > So you think that he should spend 1.5 years... hold on... no one ever said anything like that. not a single comment here. let's keep calm. the whole situation still seems unreal to myself...
  - rat9988 7y ago
    Except the comment that the commented you quoted is answering to?
    - blondin 7y ago
      see the three dots i had in there? that's me being lazy and not quoting the whole hyperbole.
      - jnbiche 7y ago
        But your criticism was about my take on the judgement, not the conditions that are common in Russian prisons (and no, it's not hyperbole, I have an acquaintance who worked with MSF on TB in Russian prisons: https://www.msf.org/tb-prisons-containing-catastrophe https://www.msf.org/tb-prisons-containing-catastrophe).
        blondin 7y ago
        okay, sorry, just felt based on many comments here that people are being emotional. if you read below, someone who can actually read the court documents said the victim was not lying around, but actually helping the other person. just too much unknown to form our own personal judgement here. that's all i was trying to say.
cousin_it 7y ago
> I’m convinced the judgment is reasonable. And I'm not. The Russian justice system convicts 99.75% of those accused. The police work may or may not have been reasonable, but the judgment is a rubber stamp.

jakear 7y ago

The defendant actually admitted guilt, seemingly readily. His argument was not that he did nothing wrong, but instead that the sentence should be adjusted. Instead of the minimum jail time of 1.5 years, he was asking for the maximum suspension of driving privilege time of 3 years. If jail is for criminal activity and suspension of driving privilege is for poor driving practice, I can see his point. Of course it gets blurry when you have criminally poor driving practice.

sdegutis 7y ago
Yes but assuming negligent driving is the cause of death of another person, it seems that just not being able to drive for a while is not taking into account the seriousness of the permanence or the consequences of the events. I am no fan of jail and don’t wish prison on anyone. But justice seems to demand at least some kind of serious retribution for the loss of life if there is any accountability. For intentional murder people get 20+ years. Accidental death having only 1.5 seems much smaller than that. That’s all I’m saying. If it wasn’t negligent but reasonable then I agree that no jail time makes most sense. But slowing down at cross walks at night in Russia seems like a reasonable thing to expect. But I’m no judge.

jnbiche 7y ago

Yes, but this wasn't a library parking lot. This was a roadway, at night, and he appears to have been going the speed limit. And the victim was lying down on the roadway in dark clothes. And there was an oncoming car with high beams on according to the court findings. So you think that he should spend 1.5 years in a Russian prison for that? A sentence that may very well ruin him psychologically for the rest of his life? And/or leave him with TB and/or Covid-19? (and here I note that American prisons are not much better, if at all).

blondin 7y ago
> So you think that he should spend 1.5 years... hold on... no one ever said anything like that. not a single comment here. let's keep calm. the whole situation still seems unreal to myself...
- rat9988 7y ago
  Except the comment that the commented you quoted is answering to?
  - blondin 7y ago
    see the three dots i had in there? that's me being lazy and not quoting the whole hyperbole.
    - jnbiche 7y ago
      But your criticism was about my take on the judgement, not the conditions that are common in Russian prisons (and no, it's not hyperbole, I have an acquaintance who worked with MSF on TB in Russian prisons: https://www.msf.org/tb-prisons-containing-catastrophe https://www.msf.org/tb-prisons-containing-catastrophe).
      - blondin 7y ago
        okay, sorry, just felt based on many comments here that people are being emotional. if you read below, someone who can actually read the court documents said the victim was not lying around, but actually helping the other person. just too much unknown to form our own personal judgement here. that's all i was trying to say.

cousin_it 7y ago

> I’m convinced the judgment is reasonable. And I'm not. The Russian justice system convicts 99.75% of those accused. The police work may or may not have been reasonable, but the judgment is a rubber stamp.