Word: draconianism
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...prevented his friends from calling the proper medical help when he needed it. According to a story in the New York Times earlier this month, a high school beer party in Harrison, New York resulted in the death of 17-year-old Rob Viscome, partially because of draconian drinking laws. After a 16-year-old punched him and his head hit the stone patio, Viscome’s friends refused to call 911 because they feared punishment. By the time Viscome made it to the hospital, it was too late to save...
South Dakota voters are currently considering whether to allow individual juries to acquit criminal defendants accused of violating laws deemed “misguided or draconian.” This power, known as jury nullification, would base criminal convictions on juries’ judgment not only on the facts of a case, but on the soundness of the law broken. Under the proposed Amendment A, to be voted on during the November elections in South Dakota, individual defendants could confess their guilt but ask for acquittal by arguing that the laws violated were misguided. Juries would then decide whether...
...advocate for a strong U.S. presence in the region, which it feels promotes stability. Manila is an old ally of Washington's and has for decades been battling its own Muslim insurgencies. Malaysia does have a Muslim majority, like Indonesia, but the government has never hesitated to use its draconian powers to keep the wilder fringes of the Muslim community under control, an attitude that seems to have been reinforced since Sept. 11 by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's desire to step forward as the world's leading moderate Muslim leader...
What some students perceived to be draconian was a while in the making. Pertile had received complaints from dining hall workers last year and this year before finally taking action...
...streets of Hamburg, Germany's freewheeling port city. The woman found herself before a judge named Ronald Barnabas Schill, who promptly sentenced her to two-and-a-half years in prison for her vandalism. Stunned, newspapers branded Schill Judge Merciless, and the sobriquet stuck through a sheaf of draconian sentences. Trading on his law-and-order image, Schill organized his own political party, the Law and Order Offensive, and won a stunning 19.4% of the vote in municipal elections last year. Now he is taking his party to two other states in the hope that his get-tough message will...