INTRODUCTION
You be the judge
Much of the news in the Bangkok Post concerns things people have done wrong. Often these actions are deliberate and end up causing harm. In such cases, the wrongdoer obviously deserves punishment – like a stay in the local prison, for example.
In many other cases, however, the situation is less clear. This is especially true when someone causes harm through a careless mistake. It is not so easy to determine when such an action should be punished. And what should the punishment be? That can be difficult to answer as well.
In fact, this is a serious legal question. The various laws involved can be very controversial and they differ from society to society. Take, for example, the following case from the United States. Read to find out exactly what the young people involved did wrong. Was their action a deliberate one or was it simply an accident? Did they intend to harm anyone? Was the punishment they received a fair one? (One thing to consider here is that all of the wrongdoers were teenagers when the unhappy event occurred.)
Teenagers get 15 years for pulling up stop sign
Causing 3 teens to be killed by 8-ton truck
Tampa, Florida, AP
Defendants Nissa Baillie, 21, and Christopher Cole, 20, console each other just after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for removing a stop sign. |
As family members on both sides of the courtroom wept, three friends were sentenced to 15 years in prison for pulling up a stop sign for kicks and causing the deaths of three teens who drove into the path of an 8-ton truck.
"I understand your parents love you as much as these parents loved their children. There are no winners in this case," Circuit Judge Bob Mitcham on Friday told the young woman and two young men who were convicted last month of manslaughter.
Three 18-year-old buddies who were driving around listening to music after a night of bowling were killed when their car breezed through the intersection and was broadsided. The stop sign was found lying on the roadside near the accident.
Though a pre-sentence recommendation called for up to 50 years in prison, the judge, who is known for his harsh sentences, decided to give the defendants far less.
"I don’t believe for one minute that you or the other two defendants pulled these signs up with the intent of causing the death of anyone," he told 20-year-old Christopher Cole.
He then sentenced Cole to 30 years, suspending half, and did the same for Nissa Baillie, 21, and Thomas Miller, 20. The three could be eligible for parole after 13 years.
All three cried and repeatedly wiped their eyes with tissue as each stood before the judge in orange jail jumpsuits, their hands cuffed. Their families and friends stood behind them and the families of the victims across the courtroom.
| sentence | punishment |
for kicks | for fun and excitement |
convicted | proven to be guilty; proven to have committed a crime |
manslaughter | the crime of killing a person without intending to do so (as opposed to murder where the act is intentional) |
breeze through | to move through quickly |
intersection | a place where two roads cross each other |
defendant | a person who has been accused of a crime |
suspend
(a sentence) | to allow to avoid punishment unless that person commits another crime during a certain period of time |
eligible for parole | having the right to be released from prison before the time of punishment has been completed |
cuffed | in handcuffs (metal rings joined by a chain used to hold a prisoner’s hands together) |
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This week’s stories
Next are three more stories that caused headaches for people in the law enforcement business. Read to find out exactly what the wrongdoers did. Should they be charged with a crime? Do they deserve punishment? If so, what kind of punishment? If you think they should not be punished, what should be done with them instead?
Firework injures 56
Fifty-six students were injured when a young colleague mistakenly lobbed an explosive firework into a sports stadium yesterday.
The accident occurred during the opening of the Nakhon Pathom Ratchabhat Institute's sports day, Pol Col Somchai Poyen said.
He said Paisal Tangyuenyong, a student, accidentally picked up the wrong firework to be used for the opening ceremony.
A smoke-generating firework was set aside for use as the highlight, but Paisal picked up an exploding firework, lit it and threw it over the stadium, which was packed with student spectators.
Three of the injured students, Anuwat Kaewma, Porn-aksorn Puengrit, and Klairung Chaengsawangdee, were rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
Paisal was charged with carrying explosives and causing injury to others, Pol Col Somchai said.
Prasob Chan-inngam, the provincial education office chief, said the accident arose from carelessness.
Fireworks should be banned from future celebrations organised by the institute, he said.
| banned | forbidden; not allowed |
Nigerian now in no-man’s land
Taipei, AP
caption. |
A Nigerian engineer hoping to seek asylum in Canada has been stuck at Taipei’s international airport, with no nation allowing him entry, police said yesterday.
Adegbenga Ifonlaja has been kept at the airport since early December when he was flown back to Taipei from Canada, where authorities blocked him from entering because he had a forged British passport.
Mr Ifonlaja said he fled Nigeria in November, fearing he would be jailed for taking part in an anti-government protest, according to police. Before travelling to Taipei and Canada, he stopped in Dubai and Singapore, police said.
Taiwanese authorities arranged to fly him twice to the Bangkok airport, where he could get a flight to Nigeria, police said. But he was sent back to Taipei each time.
Thai officials had tried to fly him to Britain or to Nigeria but no airline would take him because he did not hold valid identification, police said.
Nigeria does not have an embassy in Taiwan because it has formal diplomatic ties with the mainland.
| seek asylum | to find a safe place to live |
valid | correct; legal |
diplomatic ties | formal relations between countries |
Shoplifter gets deportation
Rochester, New York, AP
A woman jailed for shoplifting about $25 worth of cigarettes, eye drops and deodorant was ordered on Tuesday to be deported to Italy, a country she left behind at age five when her family emigrated to the United States.
Maria Wigent, 37, who is married to an American and has two teenage sons, drew a two-year sentence last year for three misdemeanour convictions after she had committed multiple attempted larcenies at neighbourhood stores.
Under a 1996 change in US immigration law, any non-citizen who gets more than a year behind bars can be subject to deportation.
"What kind of Christmas is this?" a tearful Anna Gaglianese, 58, said in broken English after an immigration judge in Buffalo ordered her daughter returned to their native land. "This is stupid. She no kill nobody, she no stealing a million dollar."
Unlike her parents, Wigent never bothered to obtain citizenship. She speaks only a little Italian, has no relatives left in Italy and could end up in a homeless shelter, said her father.
| misdemeanour | a minor crime |
conviction | a court decision that someone is guilty of a crime |
larceny | theft; stealing something |
behind bars | in prison |
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This week’s cover story in real.time, Viva la radio!, focuses on the career of a veteran radio DJ. The title "Vive la radio" — long live radio — can also be applied to the DJ Viroj Kwantham. He is 50 years old, and as you will find out when you read the story, he is very much alive and as popular as he was in the 1970s when his career began.
His popularity has always been based on a very deep knowledge of the music he plays. That, he says, is the difference between his style and the gimmicks often used by today’s disk jockeys.
Below is a story map that will give you a guideline for reading the story.
- Introduction: the reason for radio’s popularity is the intimate relationship between DJ and listener.
- Mid 1970s: the rise of international pop songs among the young audience
- Late 70s and early 80s: the rise in popularity of disco music and local night clubs
- 1980 - mid 90s: a decade when modern Thai music was dominant and foreign music became less popular
- mid 1990s: Viroj returns to the airwaves with his son, with a joint program of a mixture of music
| veteran | someone with a lot of experience |
gimmicks | tricks; something used to attract people’s attention |
vinyl | a hard plastic; the recording disks made of it |
intimate | close and personal |
TEACHER'S NOTE
This is the kind of lesson I enjoy teaching because it requires students to think about what they read. In other words, this is not a mechanical "read the story and answer the questions" lesson. What’s more, assuming I have chosen my example stories correctly, the students will want to think about the topics covered –and they will want to voice their opinions as well.
Another nice thing about this lesson is that it conforms to a very sound principle in the teaching of reading: the more students think about a text, the better they should understand and remember it. Reading researchers have given this idea a fancy name. They call it "depth of processing" and this is one of the key ideas behind the construction of modern reading lessons.
This week your students will get to do some very deep processing indeed. Spend some time discussing the story in the introduction. Note that there are many things to consider, i.e., the ages of those involved, their intentions and the consequences of their actions. Have your students decide how severe the punishment should be. Remember also that punishments are intended to deter other people from making the same mistake.
Since there are three cases to consider for the main activity, you could divide your class into three parts with each considering a different case. If you have time, however, I would have your class consider all the cases because they offer interesting contrasts.
The first case may have been a simple act of carelessness, but it led to a number of serious injuries. The second case presents a real dilemma with no obvious answers about what to do. Sending the man back to his native country might be a violation of human rights if he really is in danger of political persecution. On the other hand, since he holds false identity papers, it is hard to see where he should be sent. Let your students decide.
The third case also involves deportation. The woman to be deported obviously did something wrong and, in most cases, people would accept that she should be forced to leave the country. This case is obviously different, however, since the woman grew up in the United States and has a family there. Let your students decide whether the judge is being overly strict.
While your class can discuss each case in groups, I would definitely finish with a full-class discussion since there are likely to be many contrasting opinions requiring even more discussion (and more deep processing) to resolve.
Next week: speeding up your reading
•This lesson was prepared by the staff of the Educational Services Department at the Bangkok Post: Acharn Terry Fredrickson, Acharn Sunee Canyook and Maureen Paetkau.
Find the other lessons in this term here.
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