For your horror.
Regards,
FrankHB
http://www.diversityworks.co.nz/news/060513.htm
It's ok to kill disabled people in NZ
MEDIA RELEASE
13 May 2006
If you want to kill someone in cold blood and get off lightly, come to
New Zealand, stab someone who is paralysed in the neck six times and say
you're stressed.
Because, according to a Kiwi judge, it's ok to kill disabled people as
long as you think you are doing them a favour. It's ok to put them out
of their misery - just don't tell them you are killing them.
You'll get a minimum parole period of seven years and, if you are lucky
enough to get Justice John Fogarty, you'll get praised that "you thought
you were doing an act of mercy in a way that minimised any awareness
that [your victim] was about to die and was being killed."
Better still, look after them for a while and do it when you're drunk
and you've had a bad day. Justice Fogarty will diagnose you with
"accumulated stress" and use his discretion to impose a lesser sentence.
Ask Eric Neil Smail, who must serve only seven years for killing former
Paralympian Keith McCormick
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381612>,
instead of the minimum non-parole period of 10 years in a life sentence.
He'll tell you that you even though you tell people you're about to kill
your "best mate", the evidence will show you had no intention to kill.
It won't matter if your victim is successful and enjoying life - if you
believe they're in pain and feel bad about it, just "take it on board"
and kill them mercifully. You'll feel better.
At Diversityworks, we have a host of disabled people, just waiting to be
killed. Call 0800 KILL-A-MATE and we'll do the rest for you. We'll give
you a drink and listen to your worries. Then you'll have your choice of
defenseless quadraplegics to stab to death. All you have to do is tell
everyone else, but not them.
Sure, you'll do time, but you'll be out before you know it.
But wait, there's more. Sign up to save two people from their miserable
lives and we'll give you a third, free. That's right - rid the world of
three useless lives, and you'll have yours back in 21 years. You may
even end up a hero.
0800 KILL-A-MATE. Doing disabled people - and the world - a favour.
Ends.
More info:
CONTACT:
Philip Patston
Ph 09 376 4837
Mob 021 764 837
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Caregiver who killed Paralympian escapes life term
New Zealand Herald
13.05.06
By Jarrod Booker
A man who slit the throat of a tetraplegic he cared for has escaped the
term of life imprisonment normally imposed for murder.
The 12-year jail sentence handed down to Eric Neil Smail, 48, in the
High Court at Christchurch yesterday has angered the family of his
victim, former Paralympian Keith McCormick.
Smail must serve at least seven years for killing the man he had flatted
with, cared for part-time and called his "best mate", instead of the
minimum non-parole period of 10 years in a life sentence.
Crown prosecutor Phil Shamy had sought an even greater minimum
non-parole period of 17 years, because Mr McCormick was vulnerable, and
because Smail had targeted the one area of his body where he had feeling.
"I'm devastated. I thought it was ghastly. I expected he would get 17
years non-parole," Mr McCormick's mother, Dorothy McCormick, told the
Weekend Herald. "Everybody that was [in court] for Keith all felt the
same."
Justice John Fogarty said Smail had been under a high degree of
"accumulated stress" and exercised his discretion to give a lesser
sentence.
He told Smail: "The evidence is that you thought you were doing an act
of mercy in a way that minimised any awareness that he was about to die
and was being killed."
Mr McCormick became a paraplegic in his early 20s when he dived into
shallow water to help someone he thought was in trouble. He led an
active life, winning medals at the Paralympics, but a second accident in
January 2000 left him a tetraplegic, able to move only his neck and head.
This left him totally reliant on carers and his health had deteriorated
in recent years. Since November 2004, Smail had been his flatmate and
part-time carer.
Based on a psychiatrist's report, Justice Fogarty said the pair had an
"extremely close relationship" and had discussed Mr McCormick's future
and desire to live. Smail became aware his friend was in considerable pain.
But Justice Fogarty said the evidence did not show Mr McCormick wanted
to die or there was any suicide pact.
On the day of the murder, July 28 last year, Smail was off work and had
drunk for several hours at bars and told colleagues of his intention to
kill Mr McCormick. However no one believed him.
He found Mr McCormick sitting in his wheelchair watching TV and stabbed
him six times in the neck before slitting his throat.
Smail then phoned friends and told them what he had done. He stayed at
the house until police arrived and said several times: "I murdered my
best friend," and "I just killed my best mate."
In a statement read to the court, Mrs McCormick said she never trusted
Smail. "It is quite ironic that Keith took more care of Smail than Smail
looked after Keith. What right did this man have to make the ...
decision to do this to my beloved son."
John Durning, a longtime friend of Smail, said his friend was the kind
of person "who took a lot on board".
He believed the sentence was appropriate.
"As Eric has said in the letters to me: He's done the crime, he has to
do the time. Being a caregiver, and probably not having the formal
training that a person should really have ... it's a lot of stress to
put on a person."
by Jarrod Booker
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