Would the law be softer on you if you were a nice person?

Question

I don't know much about law, but take for example

1) you were caught with possession of LSD

however, you were a round-the-clock humanitarian, volunteer worker, charity organiser and counsellor. Would the law treat you differently based on being good natured or is this not possible?

Obviously a possession of a drug is different then murder...

Answer 1

Generally the law is soft on first-timers (excluding murder,etc), but will try and nail down people who have a criminal record.

Answer 2

If you were prepared to tell lies (despite your wonderful humanitarian lifestyle), then you could probably put up a good story about how you had helped someone in trouble and were on your way to hand over the LSD to the police.

There can be a difference in the way people are treated in some circumstances. If I were caught in possession of a baseball bat, for example, I could probably convince the police that I was off to play a game. If I spoke in a different accent or looked rougher than I do, then they would not give me the benefit of the doubt.

Being a nice person can, however, sometimes give bullies the impression that you are an easy victim and they will take advantage of what they see as your soft nature to be nasty.

Answer 3

They are meant to take things like that into account but everyother person already tries to use this as their own defence the old 'oh theyt are a nice personality really they just had a bad night and just so happened to be standing outside that persons house at 2am with a knife' xD and at the end of the day the law is pretty messed up it all ends up on the judge/jury/police you were working with its such a shame however they will take into account how you treated the policemen that caught you and wether you gave them alot of abuse...and no the law should go like this:punishment fits the crime... but lets be truthful it doesn't

Answer 4

Those matters could be used at trial two ways:

One is if there were only circumstantial evidence of the possession, say if it were found in the back seat of your car, those matters might be used to make the jury doubt it was really yours.

The other is to make the jury think you didn't need to be sent away for the maximum time.

Yes, if those things could get admitted into Evidence, they'd help.

However, if the Defendant puts their Character at issue like that, the Prosecution can enter evidence of bad Character, such as how often you visit strip clubs or whatever.

Answer 5

First timer should get away with a caution if not enough on you to supply the whole town, but to get this you must be willing to admit and be very sorry and say you wont ever do it again.

If you did have enought to supply the whole town and it goes to court then you must mention in court about all the good things you do and ,make out the drug helped your depression that you were to scared to go to the doctors about or some thing simular

Answer 6

When punishing people (in the UK) the courts do tend to take everyone's character into consideration during what is called mitigation. This is the part when your lawyer says that, yes, you are guilty, but that you are also a person of good character who uses his time constructively in the aid of others, and that you should be given credit for that.

You will still be punished, but it would be lesser if is a first offence. You will also be warned about your future behaviour

Answer 7

The Khemist,
Sounds like a good name to be asking questions about LSD, If you cooperated sure you would get a soft sentence from me, like say 2 years as an orderly in an African Aids clinic,
And for your first murder we would only make the drop 6 feet instead of 12, then again its only a labour government so they will slap your wrist give you 200 quid and tell you not to do it again.

Answer 8

no. why should the law be different for some people and not for others. that's the whole point of the law, it's one law for everyone and if you break a law then you're punished. you can't be that nice a person if you'd want preferential treatment because of your job anyhow. and a genuinely 'nice' person wouldn't be breaking the law in the first place. w t f would a 'nice' person want with lsd? you're having a laugh!

Answer 9

A "nice person" is a relative and subjective concept.

Your plan would also undermine the rule of law, since in a free society everyone should have equal legal rights.

Answer 10

Oh course it is. Our law system is so missed up that even a caveman can go away with rape and murder for just being stupid. It's the same Principal really for anybody. If it was a mexican and he stole it, his *** will be in jail within seconds.I am not trying to be racist but there are some racist judges.