“Clark Rockefeller” was convicted today of kidnapping his daughter. In a live interview with WTKK’s Michele McPhee, Jay repeatedly played “devil’s advocate” and wondered whether many sane men, if faced with the loss of a child, might attempt a similar abduction. Jay was careful not to say that he thought parental kidnapping could ever be justified, but his comments certainly left the impression that when considering a party’s guilt and/or sentencing, a judge or juror might reasonably ask what he or she would do under similar circumstances. Now if both the judge and the accused had been Latina women, and the judge had made the slightest utterance about how she could relate to or sympathize with the defendant, can you imagine the slamming that Jay would have unleashed?
Judge Jay Severin showing empathy?
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4 Comments
Having an understanding of something and abiding by the law are two different things. Who in their right mind would not entertain the though of whisking their child away if they believed the courts were wrong? Emotionally, this is no different than wanting to kill the killer of your child. In our system both are illegal so you must be willing to suffer the consequences. Certainly that doesn’t mean that neither are justified. By the way … the judge should have no choice based on the law but the jury certainly does when deciding the verdict. http://fija.org/
Let’s not confuse logic with emotional understanding. Logic offers us little assistance when understanding emotion.
I doubt that Jay would differentiate between Latina and non Latina in this case unless of course he was discussing an illegal alien. This would seem to be your predjudice, not his.
Let me try to make my point another way. I tried to call in a couple times on Friday but couldn’t get through. If I’d been able, I would have said this: “Jay, are you aware of the study that shows that fathers are 35% more likely to win full or partial custody if the judge is a divorced father and 70% more likely to win full or partial custody if the judge is a divorced father who has or had primary custody of his kids?” Jay would say no, he’s not aware of it, because I just made that study up. I’d then say “so it seems to me that the way to remedy this situation is for governors to appoint more single fathers as judges who hear custody cases.” If Jay says no, that’s not the way to go, then I ask if he’s got a better idea and question how committed he really is to fathers’ rights. If he says yes, then he’s cooked when it comes to Sotomayor because he’s just admitted that a judge’s life experience is relevant to his or her performance on the bench and that it’s OK for Justice to be peeking out from under her blindfold in some circumstances.
Hey, David from Brighton–
This request is off-topic for this particular post, but…
Since you listen to Severin’s show with some regularity, what is going on with the advertisers? Did they end up pulling out from his show, or did they quietly return?
Boston Globe story listed some of the advertisers, but the one I’m most interested in is Herb Chambers — since it is a company that does business here in Allston-Brighton.
If you hear an ad for Herb Chambers on Severin’s show, would you please drop me a line at pahre@comcast.net with date/approx time? Many thanks!
Alas, I cannot. I tend to listen to the show at wtkk.com, and they don’t play the commercials that are broadcast. If I happen to hear one on the radio, though, I’ll let you know.