Jan. 21, 2013<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to advocates (of victim impact statements), they allow victims to personalize the crime and elevate the status of the victim by describing the effect the crime has had on them or their families. Some laud the courtroom ritual as an aid in the emotional recovery of the victim…. A few legal scholars suggest that the well-intentioned personalization of a crime can blur the line between public justice and private retribution….\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From \u201c<\/em>Death by Treacle<\/em><\/a>\u201d by Pamela Haag in the American Scholar (Spring 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cProsecutor Nancy Lamb and the mothers of the victims burst into tears. Court officials handed out tissues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013 From \u201cDay Care Owner Convicted on 99 Counts of Child Abuse\u201d\u00a0by the Associated Press (April 22, 1992)<\/em><\/p>\n Count me with those \u201cfew legal scholars\u201d who doubt justice is well served by injections of sentimentality. (Although Bob Kelly\u2019s sentencing seems to have concluded without victim impact statements, prosecutors ensured an ample display of mawkishness \u2013 the front row was packed with supposed child-victims holding tight to their dolls and teddy bears.)<\/p>\n But sentimentality also extends to the blindered bonding of Little Rascals prosecutors and parents.<\/p>\n What if Nancy Lamb had managed to keep even the slightest professional distance between herself and the parents, instead of being swallowed up in their manic cause? Might she have been able to glimpse reality?<\/p>\n And what if Bill Hart had avoided\u00a0dating (and later marrying)<\/a>\u00a0one of those parents?<\/p>\n