SmartMonsters

TriadCity Message of the Day
2008-08-29

Rules of thumb:

  • The poorer the convict, the more likely to receive the death penalty.
  • The richer, the more likely to receive a fine instead of jail time.
  • The wealthier or more politically connected the victim, the tougher the sentence.

Convicts with healthy enough bank accounts may well leave a courtroom free after committing murder, provided the victim wasn't a Judge, or the Mayor, or a Senator, or extremely wealthy, or prominent in some other way which, we hope, will be obvious. Of course, the convict's bank account will be lighter, probably considerably.

Convicts lacking sizable bank balances are likely to be sentenced to prison time or even death. However, convicts sent to prison in NE aren't really expected to serve out their sentences. Instead, the expectation is that their bank accounts will be enhanced one way or another, e.g., some other character will give or loan them the money necessary to leave the prison. This is also true of those sentenced to death. If the financial means can be found in time, execution of sentence is unlikely.

These features suggest that group solidarity among criminals is a good thing. It's up to criminals themselves to forge that solidarity, or not.

More notes will follow as Justice NorthEast nears completion.

Back to the MOTD index.

 
 
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"It is important to remember that any abstract story system ultimately refers to the sorrows and pleasures of human life and that the story of any event depends heavily on who is doing the telling. A storytelling system that further calcifies the distortions of stereotypical thinking would be as destructive as the most bigoted and bloodthirsty bard. We humans already do enough mechanical thinking without enlisting machines to help us."
-- Janet H. Murray,
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (info)

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