Virtue Ethics Ethical System on Ledale Nathan Jr Case Essay Example

in that he lacked integrity in making the judgment to the juvenile because he made a ruling to jail the juvenile for life without parole whereby for the juveniles the law does not allow juveniles to be jailed for life without parole. The judge did not show his honesty as well as truthfulness or else accuracy on his ruling (Lefstein & American Bar Association, 2011). The judge also goes ahead to break the social norm of jailing the juvenile and separating him with the family members and the laws does not allow juveniles to be jailed in state jail where the law states that the family ties should be protected and ought not to be severed or else damaged. The juvenile should have the chance for the family members to offer support by them having regular visits. By jailing the juvenile and having him serve the sentence in a state jail he is isolated from all the family members and friends which make the eventual integration back to his home more difficult.

The judge also lacks self control in that by making the final judgment on the case he should have considered the juveniles age and make a fair judgment taking into consideration what the law states. The judge should have considered a broad range of sentences which are available for the court. The judge should not have made the ruling by following the rules that are irrespective of internal attitudes and feeling, because the judge had a virtuous moral agent to have self control in his ruling. He had the capacity to make the ruling based on reason (Lefstein & American Bar Association, 2011). And

it is by reasoning that the judge could have determined how to act and make the judgment in a way that would be appropriate for this situation. For an individual it is not enough to have the virtues, though the judge should have the capacity to know how and when to exhibit these virtues. Thus the judge should have used rationality to make a wise ruling.

References

1. Lefstein, N., & American Bar Association. (2011). Securing reasonable caseloads: Ethics and law in public defense. Chicago, Ill: American Bar Association.