Link: https://nationalpost.com/news/man-who-murdered-girlfriend-gets-reduced-sentence-partly-due-to-his-race

A man who stabbed his girlfriend to death at a shopping centre in British Columbia received a lighter sentence partly because of his race.

Downey was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced last month to life in prison. The Crown was seeking no chance for parole for at least 15 years, but B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes went with 12 years after reviewing Downey’s Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA).

“As I have indicated, Mr. Downey has a substantial criminal record involving violence and firearms. I recognize, however, that the aggravating effect of his criminal record is offset in part by the mitigating circumstances of his background, as detailed in the IRCA,” Holmes said in her Feb. 13 decision.

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Similar in function to Gladue reports for Indigenous offenders, IRCAs are designed to “help criminal justice professionals better understand the effects of poverty, marginalization, racism, and social exclusion on Black and racialized offenders and their experiences,” according to the Department of Justice. IRCAs were first developed by a Nova Scotia sociologist in 2014 and are now increasingly used in Canadian courts.

I'm sure this post was meant to outage, but instead it's nice to see that the impact of the shitty treatment many PoC undeservedly experience throughout their lives is finally starting to be officially recognized. I hope mental therapy is a significant part of this person's sentence as a result. I don't know if this person is recoverable, but everyone deserves a chance to try redeeming themselves.