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Common Dreams reports
Reviled Florida State Attorney Angela Corey lost her reelection bid on [August 30], prompting widespread celebration as the woman The Nation once suggested was "the cruelest prosecutor in America" was ousted.
"Corey's loss is an encouraging sign that the public will no longer tolerate overzealous and unprincipled criminal prosecutions, including women and children", University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks said in a statement.
Corey, whose eight-year tenure in Florida's Fourth Judicial Circuit Court saw her charge 77 children as adults in 2016 alone and sentence more people to death than any other Florida prosecutor, gained widespread notoriety for her inadequate prosecution of Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman, and for seeking a 60-year sentence for Marissa Alexander, a domestic violence survivor with three children, for firing a warning shot in the direction of her abusive husband. (Alexander spent three years in prison.)
[...] Corey was defeated by unknown opponent and corporate lawyer Melissa Nelson, who will now face off with write-in candidate Kenny Leigh in the general election--although Jacksonville media noted that no write-in candidate has ever been elected to the state attorney position in Florida, and that Leigh has yet to make a single campaign appearance.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 03 2016, @07:52PM
I wouldn't argue with his figures, but his reasoning connecting it directly to genes and ignoring various social and cultural pressures is unconvincing. This is the old argument summarized as "nature vs. nurture" and there are lots of reasons why it's difficult to resolve, and that's one of the reasons I looked at as different a culture as I could find for my "baseline".
OTOH, it's true that the genes of men tend to make them more "vigorous", taller, stronger, and more willing to take risks. These factors in combination with social and other cultural pressures will often cause violence to be more common among men. But the link to violence being directly genetic is, at best, unproven, and quite difficult to even try to prove. It is traditional to assume the link, and there is some evidence indicating that it might be real. I cannot take his bland assertion that it is as valid, and the form of his argument is not linked to genetic mechanisms, but rather to social mechanisms. Also please note that he is a professor of psychology, not of genetics or physiology, so the form of his argument is what would be expected.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday September 03 2016, @08:31PM
It is traditional to assume the link, and there is some evidence indicating that it might be real. I cannot take his bland assertion that it is as valid, and the form of his argument is not linked to genetic mechanisms, but rather to social mechanisms
Those with a 'Y' chromosome are much more likely to commit crime. [telegraph.co.uk] Full Stop.
From the linked article:
Holding other factors constant, having a 'Y' chromosome is an excellent predictor of criminal activity.
How strong the genetic component is may be an open question, but across vastly different human cultures this observation holds true.
More relevant discussion can be had here [theatlantic.com].
You can argue the nature vs. nurture angle all you want, but Dr. Eagleman's statement [jrbenjamin.com] (quoted from this book [amazon.com]):
David Eagleman is not a psychologist, but a neuroscientist [wikipedia.org].
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr