OPINION
So a 39 year old father of two is knifed to death in Auckland. The killer will be caught, his DNA matched to confirm that he is indeed the killer, and millions will be spent on a court case and 15 or so years of meals and accommodation and rehab in prison.
In the meantime, the Mohini family will go thru a living hell (to quote Bob Dylan) and the children will live with no earthly father for the rest of their lives.
I think our society has its sums wrong. The killer has taken a life that was not his to take. Only God has the right to take another life because only God holds the privileged position of creator and sustainer of all things. The killer has taken the life of a human being, a person made in the Imago Dei. A person stamped with the image of God in his very being. The killer has violated the divine law, and now our justice system will almost certainly practice further injustice towards the Mohini family by showing them that the life of a husband/father is worth only 15 or so years.
