 | By Miriam Shaviv
May 5, 2010 | Share |
More trouble ahead for that champion of human rights, Judge Richard Goldstone.
According to Yediot Achronot, as a judge on the South African court of appeals in the 1980s-90s, he sentenced no less than 28 (!) black people to death, writing in one of his verdicts: "The gallows is the only deterrent for murderers".
He also sentenced four black people to flogging - and let off four white policemen who burst into the house of a white woman who was suspected of having sex with a black man (then a criminal offence).
His defence?
He apparently told Yediot that he was always against the death penalty (although that seems to contradict what he said at the time); that he never discriminated against black people (although the legal system was weighted against them); and that during the apartheid era, he had to obey the law.
Did he really? Was he forced to be a judge?
What his defence essentially amounts to is, 'I was just obeying orders....'
Full story in the weekend edition of Yediot.
(H/t Dani Wassner. See also Jerusalem Central.)
jose (not verified)
Thu, 05/06/2010 - 06:54
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Obeying orders or forced to own a living?
Like the IDF was obeying orders to reach for Hamas terrorists in Gaza? He should have been more sympathetic to these goals, then!
Sometimes people do what they were trained to do, no matter if what they do harm others. An example: train conductors. Usually a good job in time of peace. Yet during the war, some drove their trains to Auschwitz and other sinister destinations. They were also only doing their job and "obeying the law". Would Goldstone have done it also?
Goldstone problem is the same as with people who take "superior authorities" as granted, when these authorities are evil ones. The blame for evil can be rejected on the authority, while the executant becomes free from any blame or so he thinks.
Goldstone should read about Stanley Milgram's experiments on "Obedience to authority". That's exactly the story of how he was trapped by UNHRC and those who are behind it, some of the countries with the worst human rights record on this planet.