What horrible sentencing
Life in prison for Glover. In the real world, it'd be death penalty.
shareIts based on a true story. Those are the actual sentences for the boys involved so in the real world it wasnt the death penalty.
shareTo tell you the truth for the crime they commited I don't think that was harsh enough, but then again the laws under military law is somewhat diffrent. Although I think if it happend now after the incident had occured and things have changed with the homosexual policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that the the punishment would have been greater. If the movie does depict how it actaully happned then the evidence was a little hairy. We weren't let it really on the whole interrogations, however I do think that at least Glover should have had it a lot harsher than he got. Although I also think Fisher should have gotten more than he did. I dont' know, life in prison or death. Either one would do for brutally assulting another solider, u just don't do that.
shareI think "real world" in this case means the civilian world. The military didn't consider it such a heinous crime since the victim was perceived as being gay.
"Let's go terrify some Baptists!" -Emma Thompson
Hi!
Being retired Military, I can weigh in this (I am a transsexual too, by the way!)
Military law will rarely imposes the death penalty. Life imprisonment is much more common. also life imprisonment in Leavenworth is NOT like life imprisonment in a civilian prison. Golver is eligible for parole in 2015, but do not bet that he gets it, because he probably will not!
Fisher did the old "plea bargaining" thing which is used in the civilian world entirely too often also. He also was addicted to retalin, which an good counselor could use to claim that he was not thinking straight when he gave Glover the baseball bat.
Unless they portrayed Fisher's character inaccurately, he's the real protagonist in this murder drama-retalin or no. Glover was portrayed beautifully, as a nearly retarded white trash boy who dares to be a solder wannabe. Give him a gun and point in the right direction and he's happy to die for any cause he's talked into. Just make sure he's pointed towards the 'real' enemy. The service is full of boys just like him-actually the world is as well.
"No one is useless in the world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else."
We dont even know if the people that ran the trial or issued the sentence knew anything about the homosexual aspect of barry
share"We dont even know if the people that ran the trial or issued the sentence knew anything about the homosexual aspect of barry"
As far as the military goes, if that had been a trial issue, then it would have further blackened his death/memory.
"We seem to have plenty of 'youth', how about a fountain of 'smart'?"
I am sure that the punishment from the court martial conviction would have also included reduction in rank to E-1 and a dishonorable discharge from the service.
Both those guys are pretty screwed up and who knows what mayhem they may potentially commit in the future.
While the civilian community may not be privy to all the details of the investigation and trial proceedings because the crime occurred fully under military jurisdiction; Fisher and Glover may also be able to partly conceal their disgraceful military service if and when they return to civilian society. They conveniently omit their former military status...although there are civilian employers who don't care one bit how dishonorable the character of service was of former military personnel. They forget that guilty verdicts in court martials are federal convictions.
Thanks for that explanation, as I wasn't exactly sure how the process worked/works. What then is a "undesirable" discharge? It doesn't seem to carry the same stigma as "dishonorable" discharge.
"...and don't call on Him to save you from your social graces and the sins you wish to waive"
An undesirable discharge is one of a number of unfavorable personnel actions that separate a service person from the armed forces. It does carries less stigma than a dishonorable discharge but the nature of the offense(s) may still be borderline enough to warrant a dishonorable.
I'm sure that besides the demotion and the dishonorable discharge in this case there would also have been a major forfeiture of pay as part of punishment (i.e. a fine that had to be paid, for example six months of pay)
If these guys ever concealed their military service on any civilian job application that asked about their veteran status & character of service, they would have omitted material facts and be subject to termination if hired. If they declare their veteran status, then it's up to the civilian employer to assess their past history against their value as possible hires.