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by ajspencer 2438 days ago
No one should be defined by the worst thing they've ever done. If someone who made a terrible mistake and paid their debt to society is able to acquire the skills to get the job based on merit despite the circumstances, they probably have an incredible work ethic and a strong desire to continue growing.
3 comments

When the system is a competition for even the most basic human needs people will judge and define others by anything that puts them a rung up on those others. People are very fast to put people into "deserve" and "doesn't deserve" piles here. I've met loads of lying, cheating, philandering, racist etc people who would "never" hire someone who had been in legal trouble despite their own poor, often technically criminal behaviors. It makes them feel "better than" and positions them for a better chance at a life in the pay to play society.
Murder is not a 'debt'. You can't just repay and i question the morality of economising murder. But hypothetically, you have taken someone's life and if I want to go into reasonably pricing that life, if there is a price it's equivalent to all the money his victim would have expected to have made in his life, ie we are talking millions. He did not repay millions. Even if he did, this debt is to the victim. Since the victim isn't around anymore, it can't be repaid. As for the rest, those are all assumptions. I don't think 'completed a coding course' gives anyone superior moral characteristics, let alone a murderer.
I don’t have sympathy for murderers. Plenty of other deserving people before we have to start caring about the plight of people willing to end someone else’s life. That’s one hell of a “mistake.” If you kill someone on purpose, I don’t give a flying —- about your “rehabilitation.” Murderers deserve a second chance when their victim gets one. (Note, I am not talking about manslaughter, negligence or any other situations where it might have been an actual mistake; if you intended to kill someone, you don’t deserve second chances.)