Motives Equal the Sentence

Topic: Guilty as Charged, But?

At first I can only think about one question: how can a person kill their spouse? Then I read the section about the woman being a victim to Alzheimer’s disease, and I felt sympathetic to a degree for Roswell Gilbert for having committed the crime of murder. The woman, because of this disease, would obviously have been in grave stress over the fact that she was being a burden to her dear husband. I agree with him being charged with her murder but the sentence to life in prison might have been too harsh. I understand that murder is murder but there is also a time for taking into account the motives of the murder. I always say that the punishment should fit the motives of the crime, not the crime itself.

Whenever I hear anything about Alzheimer’s disease I am saddened because I met a relative not to long ago that has this horrible disease. She is an awesome lady, but the weight she carries for having to rely so heavily on other family can be seen deep in her eyes. It is always a sad state of affairs when dealing with Alzheimer’s. Roswell would have been under stress himself for having such a burden to deal with; however back in 1985 the ideals for a husband and wife were different than those today. Back then the spouse would go to any length to make each other happy and to be the best partner one could ever ask for. So if one asked the other to jump off a building, or help end one’s pain, then he would most likely do it because of the devotion to each other. The worst thing in life is to see someone in so much pain that you love more than anything else in the world.

Mrs. Gilbert, instead of asking her husband to take the responsibility of ending her life, could have easily tried to find another way to get rid of her pain. She could have easily taken the gun in her own hands and pulled the trigger, rather than asking her husband to do that. This lack of taking responsibility cost Roswell Gilbert the rest of his life. Even Mr. Gilbert could have chosen a different route such as dealing with her pain together, and telling her that he would not take her life because he loved her too much; he did say that he loved her very much. The kicker was his devotion to his wife.

I do not think that he should have gotten life in prison without parole or clemency, though the charge of first degree murder was correct. I believe that society should have tried to understand where he came from when making this decision. Life in prison and no clemency showed that they did not try. I do not think our laws are sufficient to take care of ordeals like these because there have been too many people that have been set free for murder; these people had worse motives, more despicable motives than what Mr. Gilbert had. Some people who are given a long chain around their necks, compared to Roswell’s short chain, are some of the worst psychopaths in society. So in essence I do not think the laws are built strong enough to deal with the complexities of such issues. Penalties of crimes should relate to the motives of the crime committed.