A common normative justification for criminal trials is their expressive value. The prosecution of aged defendants, especially those with deteriorating health, seemingly presents new expressive challenges, where the value of judging and punishing past wrongs seems to conflict with sympathies for the elderly, the seeming futility of prosecuting individuals who are unlikely to serve much of a sentence if convicted, and the seeming cruelty of putting the frail/ill through lengthy and taxing trials. Drawing from philosophical literature on respect for persons and the morality of aged-based differential treatment, this paper argues that deciding not to prosecute would be a communicative disservice to the old—defendants, living victims and those left behind, and other aged individuals within a society—by treating the aged as less agentic or as if their past lives and past actions, admirable or detestable, should no longer be associated with them, nor praised or condemned.

刑事审判的一个常见规范理由是它们的表达价值。起诉老年被告，尤其是那些健康状况不断恶化的被告，似乎提出了新的表达性挑战，其中判断和惩罚过去错误的价值似乎与对老年人的同情相冲突，起诉不太可能为社会服务的个人似乎是徒劳的。如果被定罪，将被判刑，以及让虚弱/生病的人通过漫长而繁重的审判似乎是残酷的。本文借鉴了关于尊重个人和老年差别待遇道德的哲学文献，认为决定不起诉将是对老年人——被告、活着的受害者和留守者——的交流损害，