Judge Stephen Yekel, 74, was found dead on Tuesday in his own courtroom

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.

            • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
              145·
              5 days ago

              Then accept that it’s as dickish as these comments.

              This thread is fucked up. I hope nobody here has to think back to it one day and wonder if their loved one deserved to be made fun of even if they did wrong in life.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              2044·
              5 days ago

              Well I’m sorry that you and others lack the small amount of empathy it takes to have the tact to not make fun of someone who literally just killed themselves.

              But silly me, suicide his hilarious, do continue. I’m sure whatever he did was totally deserving of death and his wife and four kids will see the funny side. And if they don’t, fuck their feelings.

              Editing this into all of my posts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  1524·
                  5 days ago

                  Yes, being on the internet totally excuses a lack of empathy and a tacit approval of suicide during a time of year where depression is at a height. Because there’s nothing someone on the edge needs more right now than to see a bunch of people mocking someone who just died, confirming to them how worthless human life is and how no one will miss them either. Ask me how I know this, go ahead.

                  Editing this into all of my posts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

                  • Psionicsickness@reddthat.com
                    106·
                    5 days ago

                    Yeah, I remember back in the day, when the internet was free. It was lawless, but there were so many great things to see too.

                    Then a bunch of pussies noticed all the fun we were having, and they gave away all that freedom to the governments and corpos, asking them to build in blocking features and filtering horseshit, so that they didn’t accidentally see an image or idea that they didn’t already have predefined in their head.

                    Just completely destroyed something that was once so beautifully free, just because they were too much an imbecile and coward to face different ideas.

                    Sad really.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  1120·
                  5 days ago

                  I’ll just quote what I said to the other person:

                  Yes, being on the internet totally excuses a lack of empathy and a tacit approval of suicide during a time of year where depression is at a height. Because there’s nothing someone on the edge needs more right now than to see a bunch of people mocking someone who just died, confirming to them how worthless human life is and how no one will miss them either. Ask me how I know this, go ahead.

                  Editing this into all of my posts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              13·
              5 days ago

              As I asked someone else, would you be happy if a judge was raped?

              And I said that because I was accused of trying to censor people by daring to suggest that maybe wait until the body is cold before making jokes. Turns out, based on an article someone else pasted, his wife ruined them financially, which could be a motive for the suicide rather than anything nefarious he may have done. Why is that a thing to be happy about, someone killing themselves because their spouse destroyed their future just because of their profession?

              Also, are you suggesting we do away with judges? What would be the alternative?

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

          • ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world
            81·
            5 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
              73·
              5 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
              33·
              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
              12·
              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.nlEnglish
                42·
                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
                  12·
                  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