Summary

Judge Stephen Yekel, 74, died by suicide in his courtroom on his last day in office after losing a re-election bid.

He was found Tuesday morning at Effingham County State Courthouse, with investigators believing the incident occurred late Monday or early Tuesday.

Yekel, appointed in 2022, had recently attempted to resign but was denied by Governor Brian Kemp.

He was also facing a wrongful termination lawsuit from a former court employee.

        • ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Idk if a judge offing himself because he lost his election bid would inspire many copy cats. His life wasn’t ruined, it probably would’ve been if he hadn’t died. But he didn’t want to wait to find out apparently.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            He did it in the courtroom, as in, his place of employment. You don’t know what others are going through, and it’s possible people could read this and choose to go out like this at their own job instead of at home or someplace else. Or maybe they’ll see someone who ended it all at the peak and somehow think that means it’s a non-terrible idea.

            Or maybe nothing will happen. I don’t know, what I do know is it’s not cool to make fun of someone who was likely suffering from mental distress/sickness, especially while their family is still grieving. That’s a dick move, even if there’s little chance of copy cats.

            A little empathy goes a long way. What we should take away from this is that mental illness can affect everyone, and we never know what others are going through, so we should always treat others like they’re going through something really hard (and we’ll probably be right more than we’d like to know).

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            What inspires people is seeing other people mocking a suicide victim and thinking, “see? This is what happens. No one cares if you live or die.”

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            That’s not an answer. If we should be punching up when bad things happen to judges, why does that not apply to things that are crimes?

            • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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              5 days ago

              I still think we should punch up for some crimes. It depends on the crime.

              But in this case, there’s clearly no reason not to punch up, because this person is not a victim.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                5 days ago

                But in this case, there’s clearly no reason not to punch up, because this person is not a victim.

                I’ve given the reason multiple times. I will give it again. And I will say again that I know this from personal experience, but that doesn’t seem to matter to anyone:

                Someone on the edge sees a bunch of people mocking a suicide and thinks, “this is what it will be like when I’m gone, no one will give a shit except to laugh at me.” And it drives them closer to the edge themselves. (They don’t think, incidentally, “well that guy’s a judge so they’ll mock a judge, but they definitely wouldn’t do the same with me even though I’m even more worthless and despicable than that judge.”)

                I very sincerely hope suicide will not be something you will have to deal with in your life.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    5 days ago

                    And I very clearly said:

                    They don’t think, incidentally, “well that guy’s a judge so they’ll mock a judge, but they definitely wouldn’t do the same with me even though I’m even more worthless and despicable than that judge.”

                    You see it as punching up. A person on the edge of suicide sees it as validation.

                    For the umpteenth time, I know this from personal fucking experience.

                    Jesus Christ, all these people essentially telling me “nuh-uh, I know more about how suicidal people think than you do, all you ever did was attempt suicide.” For fuck’s sake.