BBC journalist Ray Gosling confesses "murder by compassion" on TV show

[garbon]

Hetero invention... it's too perfect to be just a random disease

Perfect? It's pretty slow at killing gays in the modern world but effective at raising healthcare expenditure.

[Grey Fox]

Hetero invention... it's too perfect to be just a random disease

Perfect? It's pretty slow at killing gays in the modern world but effective at raising healthcare expenditure.

Exactly.

[Neil]

I don't know why he has decided to admit it; there's pretty much a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude building up over here about such cases.

Give it another ten years and the law will get amended to allow the right-to-die anyway.

Yeah, but even then the law won't allow faggots to just go around smothering people with pillows.

[Agelastus]

I don't know why he has decided to admit it; there's pretty much a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude building up over here about such cases.

Give it another ten years and the law will get amended to allow the right-to-die anyway.

Yeah, but even then the law won't allow faggots to just go around smothering people with pillows.

No, it won't - because by then proper methods will have been put in place. People will no longer have to extemporise with whatever is available.

[Neil]

I don't know why he has decided to admit it; there's pretty much a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude building up over here about such cases.

Give it another ten years and the law will get amended to allow the right-to-die anyway.

Yeah, but even then the law won't allow faggots to just go around smothering people with pillows.

No, it won't - because by then proper methods will have been put in place. People will no longer have to extemporise with whatever is available.

So he would still be a murderer, and would still be hanged.

[Martinus]

There is no death penalty in Europe.

[Neil]

There is no death penalty in Europe.

Not for very much longer.  It'll be back.

[The Minsky Moment]

But doesn't the confession need to happen before the court?

No, most confessions are made in police stations or to others outside of court.

[The Minsky Moment]

If he pleads guilty, yes they could. If he doesn't, for whatever reasons, doesn't the requirement of evidence still holds to validate that the confession is genuine and a crime has actually taken place?

The confession is evidence in itself.  The circumstances of the confession can be offered to prove up its validity.  You are correct that there still could be a defense in theory, but if the physical evidence is not inconsistent with the confession, good luck.

[grumbler]

The confession is evidence in itself.  The circumstances of the confession can be offered to prove up its validity.  You are correct that there still could be a defense in theory, but if the physical evidence is not inconsistent with the confession, good luck.

How many times have we seen people convicted based on testimony that they confessed to cellmates?  Bunches.  I'd say that the policy of STFU is a good one even for people other than Marti.

[Martinus]

Incidentally, the guy has not - and said he will not - name his lover or the place or date of his death. Are you still positive this is sufficient to get a conviction out of this "confession"?

[The Brain]

IIRC there's about 300-400 people doing time in US jails today for being the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

[grumbler]

Incidentally, the guy has not - and said he will not - name his lover or the place or date of his death. Are you still positive this is sufficient to get a conviction out of this "confession"?

Before you ask if someone is "still positive this is sufficient to get a conviction," you probably should wait until someone actually claims to be positive to begin with.  Strawmen are so ugly, and you have so many dangling in front of you already.

[Martinus]

The confession is evidence in itself.  The circumstances of the confession can be offered to prove up its validity.  You are correct that there still could be a defense in theory, but if the physical evidence is not inconsistent with the confession, good luck.

How many times have we seen people convicted based on testimony that they confessed to cellmates?  Bunches.  I'd say that the policy of STFU is a good one even for people other than Marti.

But in these cases this was not the sole evidence. Here you have nothing - to even the victim's identity (I assume it can be traced back to some guy who died of AIDS, but can it be proven beyond reasonable doubt? I doubt it).

It's akin to Malthus's story about the guy killing another guy on some navy ship back during WW2 - I thought the conclusion back then was that it would be nigh impossible to convict someone based on that confession, so not sure what changed since then (other than the fact that this is Languish so everybody is contrarian).

[grumbler]

[But in these cases this was not the sole evidence. Here you have nothing - to even the victim's identity (I assume it can be traced back to some guy who died of AIDS, but can it be proven beyond reasonable doubt? I doubt it).

It's akin to Malthus's story about the guy killing another guy on some navy ship back during WW2 - I thought the conclusion back then was that it would be nigh impossible to convict someone based on that confession, so not sure what changed since then (other than the fact that this is Languish so everybody is contrarian).

I wasn't making a comment about this case, per se.  I was simply pointing out an application of JR's point about confessions - you don't need to make them in court in order to have them used against you.

There is a huge difference between confessing outside of court and pleading guilty, of course.  As you note, there would have to be supporting evidence that the confession actually occurred and was genuine, but those cellmate confessions have been pretty powerful testimony, from all that I have heard.

I have no opinion on whether this guy can be successfully prosecuted based on what he has said so far.  But I am willing to bet sterlings to donuts that he didn't need to name the victim of place for the authorities to be able to identify both.