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Creationist Kills Evolutionist With Knife But Is Sentenced to Just Five Years After Court Finds Him a “Person of Good Character” and the Killing “A Complete Aberration”

320px-Ape_skeletonsScotsman Rudi Boa, 28, and his girlfriend Gillian Brown were on a trip to New South Wales, Australia when they met English backpacker Alexander Christian York, 33. The couple and York had some drinks and soon got into an argument over evolution. York ended up stabbing Boa to death but was given just a five-year sentence because the court found him a decent chap and the killing an “aberration.”

The couple met York on their way to pick fruit as neighbors at a caravan park. Boa (who is a biomedical scientist like Brown) and York got into a fight over evolution, which York rejects as a creationist. The fight became a shouting match in a pub, but was broken up. It resumed it appears around a dinner campfire when attacked Boa with a kitchen knife. They had all been drinking heavily.

Justice Michael Adams ruled from the court in Wagga Wagga that York should not be given a longer sentence because he “is a person of good character and the offence is a complete aberration.”

For the full story, click here.

16 thoughts on “Creationist Kills Evolutionist With Knife But Is Sentenced to Just Five Years After Court Finds Him a “Person of Good Character” and the Killing “A Complete Aberration””

  2. mespo,

    That Emily Litella ranks right up there with Learned Hand in the history of jurisprudence. Based on the Prof’s posting, I too was initially ready to dissent. Interesting case though. Reminds one that the Devil is indeed in the details. Or not in the details as the instant case seems.

    Mike S.,

    The answer to your rhetorical question is “no”. Possibly “Hell no”.

  3. If they had been high on marijuana, might the killing have happened at all? Just asking.

  6. Aussie:

    Thanks for the link. I now see th error of my ways after having leapt to conclusions based on a faulty read of Professor Turley’s article. In the sage words of Emily Litella, “Never mind.”

  8. In the words of Marvin Gaye, “Make me wonna holler, though up both my hands!”

  10. Most murders are aberrational. The justification for the sentence is absurd. The court appears to have been motivated by reasons which are unstated.

  11. As long as he didn’t kill me mommie he gets five years for being a good creationist, cause the creator is a killer?

  12. Crikey! York’s not decent, he’s descended, as is the Wagga Wagga judge.

  13. “Justice Michael Adams ruled from the court in Wagga Wagga that York should not be given a longer sentence because he ‘is a person of good character and the offence is a complete aberration.'”

    ******************

    Well isn’t that obvious when a 33 year old guy attacks a 28 year old women with a kitchen knife as they prepare dinner and hours after the alleged verbal confrontation occurred. No need to worry about this guy’s conduct in the future. No sirree, Boa!

    For confirmation, let us look to his shattered countenance at the sentencing hearing in the presence of the victim’s family:

    “York, unshaven and dressed in prison greens, sat impassively as Justice Adams read out the sentence.”

    Not so much. Judge Mespo dissents.

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