It can be hard to live – and die – in Greece. Especially die. Because the judicial system there is tough on dead people and it’s not easy to defend yourself when being dead prevents you from showing up in court to argue your case.
This week, a judge there convicted a dead guy of stealing electricity. The guy’s lawyer argued that his client’s current state of deadness should get him off the hotseat but the astute judge, ever wary of the criminal trick of dying to avoid justice, wasn’t having any of it. “Guilty as Charged!!!” I don’t know if “Charged!!!” was related in any way to the fact that the item stolen was electricity, but I don’t think it was.
In any case, sentencing has been postponed. The death penalty is not being considered as that would seem to be a bit redundant in this case. Overkill, if you will. So, house arrest, maybe. However, it is rumoured the defendant has gone underground to avoid paying for his crime. But, I think he has boxed himself in. I think he is in deep.
Thank God the judge sees through all that. And I am looking forward to the rulings he makes after he himself has died. I expect they will be groundbreaking.
P.S. You may be thinking that it does not make sense to convict a dead man of a crime. This just shows your ignorance of legal matters. The law has several functions beyond the simple one of deciding penalties. A bigger one is to prevent the establishing of precedents that can result over time in injury to the social fabric. In this case, if one dead guy is able to get away with stealing electricity, this will be open the door to similar abuses by other dead guys. Soon, people who are no longer alive may start stealing other commodities, committing other crimes, all the while thinking they will pay no penalty.
It is important to show that people cannot get away with anti-social behaviour based on the flimsy excuse that they are dead. We are fortunate in Canada where our legal system contains few loopholes and electricity theft by the dead is not a significant problem here. A death certificate is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
©2015 Jim Hagarty
