RE: Should Prisoners be set Free When Their "Crime" Becomes Legal?
June 11, 2015 at 6:28 pm
(This post was last modified: June 11, 2015 at 6:30 pm by Dystopia.)
As a law student I'm gonna disagree with Jenny (knowing she's an expert in the field 
) - When we make something legal (and assuming it was illegal before) it means that we decided something that was once immoral, wrong or harmful is now acceptable or at least ignorable/tolerable - For this reason, keeping people in jail for something that is legal is completely contradictory with the principle of justice and in particular what in Europe we call the legalistic principle - No one shall be imprisoned by a crime that is not expressly predicted on the law and by the law. I don't think it's a reason for people to not obey the law because there are some things we know will never be legalised. This is, of course, assuming our laws progress (not regress), meaning that each new law is better than the older one.
A curious fact - In Portugal (inspired in the Germanic civil law system so the Germans must be alike) if you commit a crime punishable by (random example) 1-5 years in prison and before you go to trial (but after being arrested) a law comes out saying the penalty changes (for example to 1-3 years) you will be sentenced with the new law and not the old one if the result is more favourable - BUT, if the penalty is harsher, you will still get the old law. The reasoning behind is that any criminal could argue in court that he/she would not have committed the crime if he/she knew the penalty would be higher.
For drug trafficking, I would not forgive because it would still be completely illegal under new laws - You could buy marijuana (assuming we legalise it) in shops, but individual people without authorizations cannot sell it on the street - Not to mention that trafficking usually involves other small/medium scale crimes
) - When we make something legal (and assuming it was illegal before) it means that we decided something that was once immoral, wrong or harmful is now acceptable or at least ignorable/tolerable - For this reason, keeping people in jail for something that is legal is completely contradictory with the principle of justice and in particular what in Europe we call the legalistic principle - No one shall be imprisoned by a crime that is not expressly predicted on the law and by the law. I don't think it's a reason for people to not obey the law because there are some things we know will never be legalised. This is, of course, assuming our laws progress (not regress), meaning that each new law is better than the older one.A curious fact - In Portugal (inspired in the Germanic civil law system so the Germans must be alike) if you commit a crime punishable by (random example) 1-5 years in prison and before you go to trial (but after being arrested) a law comes out saying the penalty changes (for example to 1-3 years) you will be sentenced with the new law and not the old one if the result is more favourable - BUT, if the penalty is harsher, you will still get the old law. The reasoning behind is that any criminal could argue in court that he/she would not have committed the crime if he/she knew the penalty would be higher.
For drug trafficking, I would not forgive because it would still be completely illegal under new laws - You could buy marijuana (assuming we legalise it) in shops, but individual people without authorizations cannot sell it on the street - Not to mention that trafficking usually involves other small/medium scale crimes
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
