All, Here is a 69 year old tenured professor who found an out-of-this country love of his life online, and "unwittingly" agreed to take a suitcase to her enroute to visiting her in Latin America. Now he is in a Latin American jail, charged with cocaine distribution: How a Chapel Hill Physicist Landed in Argentine Prison on Drug Charges - The Ticker - The Chronicle of Higher Education What are your thoughts? Guilty or not??:tragedy:
While mens rea does not seem to apply here, the actus reus does indeed come into play - all the signs of a crime were there but he willingly chose to ignore them. How can he say that he was hoodwinked when it is clear (to the reasonable person) that something was amiss? Yes, clearly the University is in the wrong! How dare they stop his pay! University Deans everywhere should unite and fight for his cause! But seriously.. How does it become the University's - say employer's - issue when an employee commits a crime? For being an academically smart person, he certainly lacks good sense.
He is absolutely lack of common sense. And I would say he is lucky with only 4 years and 8 months in confinement. There was similar situation, which a Vietnamese-Canadian woman was executed in Vietnam. She was carrying a package of Lacquer painting for someone, and somebody will meet her in Canada to take over. She received $100.00 for the task, but the airport authority in Vietnam found cocaine in those Lacquer painting. The Vietnam Government executed her before the Canadian government tried to negotiate.
I read another article about this same story earlier this week. It showed the content of some of his messages to his "girlfriend" which implicate, about as clear as day, that he knew what he was transporting. His defense was that he was only joking. Hmm, maybe. But how do you joke about something like that and then act like you have no idea that such a thing could occur to you. Then there's the part about his legal action against the school he works for- claiming that he has a right to receive his salary even though he's in jail and doing nothing for them.