lindajoy wrote:
Steven W. Sword is a judge for the Knox County Criminal Court in the 6th Judicial District, which presides over Knox County, Tennessee. He was appointed by Governor Bill Haslam and assumed office on August 1, 2011. Sword was then elected to the court in 2012, and re-elected on August 7, 2014. His current term ends in 2022.
Haslam is a republican..
Sword ran unopposed in the 2014 election and when you look at what he supposedly supports you would think he would have been Stronger in his Sentencing...
Steven W. Sword is a judge for the Knox County Cri... (
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That is kind of PeterS' point here. Yes, the judge IS a republican, yes, the judge gave out far too lenient of a sentence and yes, the reasoning for that far too lenient of a sentence was BECAUSE of the fact that he is an
Evangelical Republican first and a judge second.
Many Republican judges judge their cases with their biases in the forefront and the law takes a back seat. The defendant was a church pastor so he MUST be a good guy, let's go lenient on him. In fact, when the judge passed sentence he made a point to point that out.
knoxnews.com wrote:
The judge acknowledged Richards' longtime ministry — he began a Bible study among his fellow inmates while jailed at the Knox County Detention Facility — and the support he still receives as mitigating factors.
Fair and balanced reporting, stating only the facts of the matter. No editorializing, no emotion.
patheos.com wrote:
In a despicable miscarriage of justice, Judge Steven Sword sentenced Pastor Richards to only 12 years in prison for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old daughter over the course of several years. In court, prosecutors argued the severity and heinous nature of the crimes deserved a minimum of 72 years in prison, but Judge Steven Sword felt otherwise.
Judge Sword, showing sympathy and empathy for the rapist, while minimizing the human suffering caused by Pastor Richards, cited the “good work” the rapist and incestuous pedophile had done in the community in an attempt to justify the light sentence.
During sentencing, Judge Sword praised Pastor Richards’ longtime ministry and the support he still receives from his congregation as mitigating factors. Judge Sword also praised Pastor Richards for leading a Bible study while incarcerated.
In a despicable miscarriage of justice, Judge Stev... (
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Biased reporting, stating the facts, but also adding opinion in the way of editorializing and attempting to trigger emotions. now let us examine the motives behind this emotional reporting.
"In a
despicable miscarriage of justice" - would anybody reading
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2019/05/09/former-pastor-nets-12-year-prison-term-rape-adopted-daughter-david-lynn-richards/1143006001/ (a fair and balanced article) argue that what happened WASN'T a "despicable miscarriage of justice"? Probably not, but we don't need our thoughts or feelings fed to us, do we? Let us continue then.
"to
only 12 years in prison" - While the use of the added word "only" in that statement is an extremely mild form of pushing emotions, the word was not needed to complete that statement nor to convey the message, it was added to pull on heart strings.
"
severity and
heinous nature of the crimes" - If these words were said in the actual courtroom, which I can not say with authority but I suspect they were, as is the nature of attorneys to pull heart strings to get their desired outcomes, then they most certainly belong in the article, otherwise, they should be left out.
"but Judge Steven Sword
felt otherwise" - Very gray area here, we know by the content of the article that "the judge felt otherwise", did we need the reminder and in such a mild bias revealing way?v By the author writing it the way that he did, he is telling us that he doesn't agree with what the judge did. Some of us prefer the facts and would prefer that the editorializing be left to the Editorials/Opinions page.
"showing
sympathy and empathy for the rapist, while minimizing
the human suffering caused by" - Anyone feeling any tugs somewhere in or around the chest region here? We can see for ourselves by the sentence passed down that the judge was being sympathetic and empathetic towards pastor Richards here and in contrast, by and because of this, he was basically "minimizing the human suffering caused by" at the same time with that very same gesture, did we need it spelled out for us?
"the
rapist and
incestuous pedophile" - Did anyone not catch the fact that this man was a "rapist and incestuous pedophile" by the facts surrounding this case? Perhaps we didn't need this language here then.
There, that covers the Bias shown in that excerpt from the Patheos article. Does everyone agree that I dissected the bias properly? Was that bias necessary to convey the facts? Did that bias change how we should feel about the facts of the case or merely reinforce them? While all too often, some if not all media outlets will perhaps show a varying degree of bias in their reporting or in what they choose to report on, as ling as it doesn't change the WAY we feel about the facts being presented, it isn't usually causing much harm. If the bias CHANGES how we feel about the facts, that is spin and that IS harmful. Spin causes people to be mis-informed, their view points get skewed by the spin, they feel differently about the same facts as they might have if the spin were not applied.
Over all, do we feel that in this case on the limited quote that I pulled from the article that Patheos was attempting to spin or to merely boost what we were already likely to feel about the facts?
As the first quote, from the local paper in the area of that trial points out, the judge was biased by his Evangelical faith and favored the pastor, the defendant in that case, he gave him far too light of a sentence BECAUSE of his own bias. That was wrong, but as I pointed out earlier, it happens fairly frequently with religious judges, the more extreme the religion, the more extreme the bias and Evangelicals are one of the more extreme Christian faiths. Religion should be left in the office as soon as they don the robe, they can pick up their religion at the end of the day when they removed the robe and head home.