On the other hand that doesn't lessen the culpability of the man who committed the attack, and to claim it does is a mechanism that seems to be much used to deflect responsibility.
In both directions, at that. If you start with the notion that any murder has exactly one unit worth of blame to be allocated, then you can argue it either way: "X is responsible for his actions therefore Y is innocent" or "X is not responsible for his actions, therefore somebody else (probably Y) is guilty".
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Date: 2011-01-13 05:10 am (UTC)In both directions, at that. If you start with the notion that any murder has exactly one unit worth of blame to be allocated, then you can argue it either way: "X is responsible for his actions therefore Y is innocent" or "X is not responsible for his actions, therefore somebody else (probably Y) is guilty".