Guilty as charged.

[WOM]

Twice in the past few weeks, very high profile (potential) court cases here have abruptly ended - before they even got started - with a guilty plea.

The first involves the driver of the tractor trailer that caused the horrific Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash last year. 16 people (mostly teens) were killed and another 13 were very seriously injured. The driver pled guilty to a variety of dangerous driving charges to spare the family the pain of the trial.

The second, just today, involves the man accused of serially killing 8 men from Toronto's gay village and hiding their dismembered remains in large planter pots. He pled guilty for reasons unknown. Possibly because he knew he was dead to rights. Possibly in exchange for better jail conditions. Possibly just out of human decency. Who's to know?

I have a lot of respect for the guilty plea. It feels more human. It's the first sign of the acceptance of what you know you've done. It's mature, and responsible. But I guess I can also understand the 'fight with everything you've got / make 'em prove it' mentality. I mean, who wouldn't want to get away with it? I guess it comes down to what kind of person you are. Are you kind, decent, caring, or just maybe an evil pragmatist. Dunno.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I feel wretched for the truck driver. Whatever happens he's going to carry the responsibility for a national tragedy around with him for the rest of his life. Thing is I can visualise myself being him. A single bad decision made in a second. Who hasn't done that? How does jail make the hideous consequences of it go away?

[ursus arctos]

He had accumulated 70 federal and provincial violations in the prior 10.days.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Good lord! How does someone even manage that.

Still, without knowing what they were, I'm not sure incarceration is much consolation for the families nor will it make the accused a better person.

[WOM]

They weren't tickets, they were log book violations. Incomplete record keeping, missing trips, time and distance unaccounted for, etc. Possible he worked over his allotted hours and was too fatigued to be on the road

[Eggchaser]

I seriously doubt human decency makes you plead guilty after butchering eight people.

[WOM]

I was trying to consider all options. Who knows, though. People who knew him said he was a great guy, good friend, devoted parent and grandparent. And a serial killer, who killed friends and strangers alike. No idea what to make of the whole thing. And, of course, the court never seems to ask the one question we want answered: why?

[MsD]

Why is he a psychopath? Underactive amygdala,
not loved enough as a child?

Or, why plant pots?

[Gangster Octopus]

He was a landscape gardner.

[WOM]

Huge pots, like you see in the lobby of office buildings. Not your window-ledge variety.