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The announcement marks a change of heart by the government, which declined last year to grant pardons to the 49,000 gay men, now dead, who were convicted under
by noarchy 13y ago
The announcement marks a change of heart by the government, which declined last year to grant pardons to the 49,000 gay men, now dead, who were convicted under the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. They include Oscar Wilde.
Pardoning only Alan Turing in the face of 49k other historical injustices isn't enough. It makes me wonder about the countless other thousands of convictions that remain on the books for things that we hardly think of as crimes today. With time, I suspect that we'll only add to that list.
- gadders 13y agoHow far back do you want this to go? I'm sure there are tons of crimes like witchcraft that people were sentenced for that are no longer illegal. Should we go back through all the laws that have now been repealed and retrospectively pardon anyone that may have been affected? Turing was clearly a genius and was treated very, very badly by the laws of the time but pardoning him changes none of that.
- Shish2k 13y ago> It makes me wonder about the countless other thousands of convictions that remain on the books for things that we hardly think of as crimes today If we're going to retroactively declare the dead to be innocent, what's to stop us from retroactively declaring the living to be guilty? IMO we should be leaving past convictions alone, and just treat this as a reminder that the law isn't always the absolute unchangeable definition of what is morally good.
- Pxtl 13y ago> If we're going to retroactively declare the dead to be innocent, what's to stop us from retroactively declaring the living to be guilty? Pardons don't work that way.
- festivusr 13y agoPardoning only Turing isn't enough, but it would be a start.