Doncha just love the cool way they talk about these things?

This is a small extract from an appeal against sentence heard in the Queensland Court of Appeal this year. I can see it as an incident in Janus, Phoenix, Wild Side or one of the other recent ‘gritty’ style of police dramas.

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The Queen v Kyle Peter Wiggins

[2003] QCA 367

COURT OF APPEAL

McMurdo P

Dutney J

Philippides J

CA No 134 of 2003

BRISBANE

DATE: 27/08/2003

The applicant was convicted after a nine-day trial of the offence of grievous bodily harm. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and 599 days was declared as pre-sentence custody. He applies for leave to appeal …

He was 30 years old at sentence and 27 at the time of the offence. He had a significant criminal history commencing in the Childrens Court in 1989 for offences of dishonesty …

At the time of the offence the applicant was a user of amphetamines and on 6 February 2001 he purchased some from the complainant. After taking the drugs he became convinced that they were of inferior quality because they had an adverse effect on him. The next day, when he was in the company of another man who had a pit bull terrier on a leash, he saw the complainant in the street with his wife and confronted him. An altercation ensued which was the subject of counts 1 and 2 on which the applicant was committed. On the prosecution case the applicant then produced a knife. The complainant’s de facto wife was present and spoke angrily to the applicant who lunged at her with the knife. The applicant demanded a refund because of the poor quality of the drug he had purchased. The complainant pushed his wife behind him and the applicant struck the complainant twice to the face with his fist. The complainant stumbled back and the applicant struck twice at his chest. The complainant then realised he had been stabbed. The applicant threatened to kill the complainant if he was not given the refund he demanded.

The complainant suffered three stab wounds to the anterior chest wall, one to the left shoulder, one below the left nipple and another immediately below that wound. Fluid collected around his heart and major cardiac surgery was necessary without which the complainant would have died … Fortunately, because of the prompt and capable medical attention available the complainant appears to have largely recovered from these potentially fatal wounds …

The offence breached a suspended sentence of two months’ imprisonment imposed for breach of a bail undertaking on 26 December 2000 which was operational for 12 months …

I would grant the application for leave to appeal. Allow the appeal and instead of the sentence of seven years’ imprisonment imposed for the offence of grievous bodily harm substitute a sentence of six years and nine months’ imprisonment.

DUTNEY J: I agree.

PHILIPPIDES J: I agree.

THE PRESIDENT: Those are the orders of the Court.

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Three months less. Was it worth the time, trouble & cost?

Eyes

Photo of the Day at the Shutterline site (members can submit photos online)

shutterline.com/potd

Hands

One Word

oneword.com

simple. you’ll see one word at the top of the following page.

you have sixty seconds to write about it.

as soon as you click ‘go’ the page will load with the cursor in place.

don’t think. just write.

[i don’t get it…]

oneword™ is a simple writing exercise.

it is not about learning new words.

nor is it about defining words.

…

just write whatever seeing that particular word inspires:

the real purpose of this exercise is to alleviate

our natural tendency to edit everything.

once one learns to flow freely in his/her writing,

their best material will emerge.

a good analogy would be a movie camera:

when a film is shot, the camera just rolls and captures

everything—good and bad. when all the shooting is

complete—the raw film is edited into a cohesive piece.

… the camera operator doesn’t keep stopping the camera and

rewinding and editing on-the-fly—the camera just rolls.

if it were to stop, some of the best performances

and spontaneous moments might be missed.

so:

be the camera. well, that’s a stupid saying, but

you get the idea. in writing—just flow. go back later

and edit. every time the camera/pen/fingers stop—

something brilliant just around the corner is lost.

Go write.