An American Amateur Horticulturalist

Forget what happened in the O.J. Simpson trail. Just today Casey Anthony, who was charged with abusing and killing her 2-year old daughter, walked out of the prison cell (nytimes.com); but Julie Bass, who cultivates the plants in her garden, is about to be locked behind bars for the crime of growing plants that are edible.

The verdict on Casey Anthony has incited outrage from people in the United States who had watched the televised trial and generated venomous online denouncements, while the sentence of Julie Bass also attracted fair bit reducers from various quarters.

However, not everyone thinks those American judges are nutcakes. To some Chinese judges, they are the idols whom they worship.

Recently a man in a Yunnan village raped and murdered a young woman who refused to marry him, and also killed her three-year old brother by smashing the toddler's head against the steel door frame. But the judge challenged China's conventional judicial practice by rejecting to deliver capital punishment for the reason that the victims were acquainted with the perpetrator and that - more importantly - the judges in the West may not send such criminal to death row.

The verdict on the brutal murder case incited outrage from people in China who had followed the trial and generated venomous online denouncements.

However not everyone thinks that Chinese judge is a nutcake. A woman TV host at the state-run central television station, who previously tenderly referred to a killer who stabbed eight times on his victim run over by his car as "that child", told the public that to protest against a judge's decision is an act of disrespecting the law which will discourage the judges to be more initiative and creative in handling verdict in future. (尊重法官的选择就是在尊重法律，如果不支持法官做出这样的选择的话，他们就无法去做出更多的探索。)

Her boldness to ill-defined judges' role in the judicial system and her sympathy persistently displayed for the perpetrators are disturbing ... or may be not. Her mind set is actually quite in line with many of her people who consistently and openly attribute their Manchurian ancestors' genocide of native Chinese as romantic heroism.

China is indeed in a mess, just like the United States, thanks to those who try so hard to make China imitate all things that are defined as distinctive American style.

Here are some online feedbacks from china.com on that woman TV host's comments:

过路瞅瞅:

法官不尊重法律，谁来督导法官依法判决呢？——这个中央台，不从调查判案程序，却从支持同性恋又转到支持xx法官的“司法探索”. 探索xx个球啊！司法探索岂是法官可以干的？一个xx法盲电视台！

晚来风徐:

杀人偿命也需要探索，天理何在，正义何在？群众对公平正义判决的认同，在法官口中成了狂欢？公众无权质疑判决，法官的权力谁来约束？要是法院既有执法权又有司法解释权，还要人大干什么？慎用死刑等同于废除死刑，这是谁家的修辞逻辑？情节这么恶劣的犯罪都可以免死，恶性犯罪靠什么来威慑？这是继南京助人青年赔偿跌倒老太案后，中国司法界的又一次道德沦陷。...不去质疑判决背后是否有腐败利益驱动，却为混账判决大唱赞歌，美化其为司法探索。

春风2008:

这个社会确实在变，在向着邪恶的方向变，没有正义，没有公德，从权威的媒体散布的言论可以见到这一点。

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