Venezuela May Decriminalize Theft for the Hungry

Well, that's one way to do it:

The poor, oil-rich nation is considering decriminalizing
the theft of food and medicine in cases where a thief is motivated by
extreme hunger or need.
Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros told Reuters on
Wednesday that the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a
broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons.
"This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Fontiveros, who
is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor
person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."
Under Fontiveros' proposal to the Supreme Court, those who take food,
medicine or inexpensive goods without using violence to ease hunger
caused by prolonged, extreme poverty would not be punished.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 16, 2004 at 11:34 AM | Permalink