dereko1969
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I agree it was stupid and I think he should probably resign but politicians from all parties do things on humanitarian grounds all the time. That's the reason why most of them got into politics in the first place.He deserves to go for pure stupidity. How many times are politicans going to be caught doing this? I don't even understand why he did it. The guy wasn't a constituent so why was he a) asked and b) agreed to write the letter. Must be missing something. And spare me the 'it was on humanitarian grounds' excuse.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/poli...ught-to-influence-judge-with-letter-1.1838165
He says he wrote the letter seeking clemency because the drug dealer's wife had committed suicide and the drug dealer was looking after the children on his own.
Surely the drug dealer's solicitor would have conveyed this information to the Judge so that doesn't make sense.
The solicitor does convey the information to the judge.
Collins wrote the letter in question and gave it to the man's solicitors.
The solicitors then made a submission, including this letter, other letters and other material, to the judge.
This is a well-established process. There is no question of a politician or any other character referee influencing a judge.
Who appoints judges? Politicians, usually FF as they are in power more often than not.
Any politician writing letters to Judges pleading for leniency is wrong.... it looks wrong, it feels wrong. To use that well worn phase but if this had happened in England, he'd have been gone by the end of the day.
He's not just any politician, he's the opposition spokesman on Justice.
And previous politicians have resigned recently in similar circumstances.
If I got appointed a judge by a particular party, and that persons Justice spokesman wrote a letter asking for special consideration for Mr X or Mrs Y, I might feel I need to return the favour. As it'll maybe help my career again later.
Of course, we all know how independent the Judiciary are and that this would never happen.....
Who?....Trevor Sargeant and Bobby Molloy are the 2 that spring to mind
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