These stories really piss me off. Why waste time and money trying to rehabilitate these monsters? They have a weapon – their bodies – and they need to be disarmed. They need to be castrated and locked up for the rest of their miserable lives. There is no rehabilitation.

It also doesn’t help that we blur the line between justice and mercy. Justice demands death for this guy, and that is what the default sentence should be if found guilty. Mercy says that if there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. mental case), then confinement might be a more appropriate. Unfortunately, our legal system tends to blur the line, so that we often substitute “not guilty” for “guilty as hell but we ain’t gonna fry the bastard for some reason.” Not doubt to be followed quickly by a lawyer on CNN talking about “vindication” and “treatment programs.”

I read last week that the problem of jury nullification started in the English circuit courts as soon as the jury replaced trial by combat. Even then, people knew that you couldn’t base a fair legal system stictly on a question of guilt. No wonder it’s so entrenched.

Murder a child, get the death penalty.

Commit any kind of assualt on a child, get life in prisonment.

If we do not project the children, we have failed as a society.

700+. 7 in our zip code alone (which is considered the “nice” part of town). One we ran across had a big red PREDATOR tag flashing across his picture.

Sure, some of these people are guilty of minor offenses- for instance, we know of one guy who had sex with a 16 year old girl when he was 19- was arrested and listed as a sex offender- now that 16 year old his wife of 5 years. So not all of the offenders are necessarily dangerous. But the dangerous ones- and make no mistake, most of them are dangerous- you would never know they’re living down the street from you.

Sexual molesters of children are repeaters. A second offense should lead to immediate execution. I don’t have a strong preference for whipping, slow hanging, etc., but it does have a certain appeal, maybe while forcing them to listen to speeches by Barbara Boxer, Grand Kleagle Byrd, and Kerry.

The murderer looked at least 66. He probably badly damaged his body (and mind) by the heavy use of alcohol and drugs. The very high recidivism rate of pedophiles demands that society treat them differently from other criminals. I have thought about this matter for a very long time and conclude that they should usually remain incarcerated.

I have a bit of a wry sense of humor, and I forget that you can’t see me rolling my eyes through the computer monitor!

My profound apologies. I read your original comments many times and could not see the sarcasm. My bust and thanks for correcting me. I appreciated your ‘for the record’ comments. RA

I think you need to fine tune your sarcasm detector. I was being completely sardonic. I thought the last paragraph of my post made that clear given the conclusion.

Apparently I was too accurate in my mimicking of those types of people who are given to excuse the worst, most despicable types of behavior in the name of victimhood.

Apologies for the confusion.

Just for the record, my feelings on this are that any form of punishment that society might give him will never even come close to inflicting the pain and suffering upon him that he deserves.

It reminds me of the torture discussion Volokh had on his site. Frankly, and I’m a little ashamed to say, I think I might actually get quite a bit of pleasure out of watching this guy be beaten and brutalized before he is slowly strangled from a rope hanging from a crane.

Yet somehow, I still don’t think that would be enough for him to endure.

What kind of punishment to you give to a person, who makes the last hours of a young girls life full of fear, anguish, pain, humiliation, etc. What to you do to a person responsible for burning that image into her parents head, never being able to forget the thought of your daughters last moments on earth?

Is anything too much? Or is everything not enough?