Arathain Kelvar wrote:
Absolutely. I'll show you my psychological credentials that back up my statement when you show me yours for your statement:
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most people would not resign themselves to death that easily
You know what? That's a fair criticism. However, as it happens we're visiting family and one of my wife's friends came over and she happens to BE a psychologist and we started talking about this, briefly, so I asked her. I could also point to several books on the subject, such as LTC Grossman's books on combat and survival psychology. However, you didn't have any way to know who I was talking to, so that was unfair of me to use. So, I'll revise it. On what basis at all do you know that he had resigned himself to death, and at what point did that happen? He was only in there 4 days. PResumably he did not decide he was going to die as soon as he was locked up.
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Also, I'll point out that this is yet another instance of you preferring to target the source of the statement rather than the content of the statement. To assist, what about carving "Sorry Mom" into his arm, and the statement from his lawyer that he had, in fact, "given up and accepted death" that leads you to believe he may not have been resolved to death?
Given your propensity for criticism my statements on the basis that I'm in law enforcement, you don't get privilege to complain that I'm criticizing the source of the statement. Doing that is part and parcel of glade discussion in general, much like complaining about "bare assertion" basically means nothing around here unless almost every single statement is criticized; this is not a rigorous forum.
That said, a lawyer's job is to represent his client's best interests, and their public statements, not subject to courtroom rules cannot be trusted as reliable; essentially it's their job to predjudice their case in favor of their client. As for carving into his arm, "sorry mom" is rather mysterious. Something to the effect of "goodbye" would seem more resigned. What did he have to apologize for?
Either way, 4.5 million is not out of line at all based on what actually happened. His state of resignation, or complaints about solitary confinement, or calculations of wages don't really change that. The settlement was not out of line in either direction with what was inflicted on him. Those people who trouble themselves to actually calculate the dollar value of a human life don't normally exceed $7 million in their calculations; in view of that 4.5 million is hardly unreasonable - seeing as he's, you know, not dead. Had he actually died, a settlement with his family that was significantly in excess of $7 million would have been out of line.