Plaxico Agrees To Two Year Jail Term

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by jsarno

We do not punish harshly for "what if" crimes, we punish harshly for actual crimes. Just like a first DUI offender gets more of a slap on the wrist...but IF he killed someone (and his name was not stallworth) he'd go to jail for a LOOOONG time. There are all sorts of "what if" scenarios. We ALL speed, so "what if" we sped and lost control and hit someone? We would be punish MUCH more severely than if we got a speeding ticket.

Punish the crime, not the potential crime.

I essentially agree with you. Killing should be punished much more harshly than potential killing. The point I was trying to make is hidden in your comments, though. Notice that we do punish drunk drivers, even if they don't injure anyone, on the principle that they could have. We do, in fact, punish potential crimes, because that is what drunk driving laws are all about.