Member

There will be things that the judge cannot take into consideration. However, we need to allow the judge to make clear what points of law will or will not be considered, and what things the victims may wish to say, in order to have their hearing and to get their say, that the judge will not technically take into account in sentencing, without putting it back on victims and saying that we cannot change the system because of the law. For example, if the victim wants to say what sentence the perpetrator should get, what is wrong with that? In these sorts of circumstance, it is perfectly reasonable that any person in court would want to be able to say that. Are we really saying that the judge cannot hear that and then set it aside?