NCJ Number
114999
Journal
Wayne Law Review Volume: 33 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 1435-1438
Date Published
1987
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper responds to Bedau's critique of the author's essay that questioned whether a legal punishment is unjust to the criminal if it is disproportionate to and goes beyond what the crime morally deserves.
Abstract
The author concluded that although unjust to the crime, an excessive legal punishment is not unjust to the criminal, who, by committing the crime, volunteered to assume the risk of suffering the excessive punishment. However, Bedau did not address the arguments raised in the author's essay. Instead, he brought up unrelated cases and incorrectly suggested that the author was concerned with sentencing disparities. He also presented four hypothetical cases. One case involves a pardon of one of two offenders sentenced to the same punishment, one involving sentencing disparity based on a fair lottery, one involving sentencing disparity based on race, and one assuming a general pattern of discrimination. However, Bedau's discussion reflects a persistent and inappropriate fusion of the concepts of justice and equality. These concepts are distinct, in that equal sentences need not be just, and unequal sentences do not show which defendant was sentenced unjustly. For the previous papers, see NCJ 114997-98.