January 18, 2022

In Norway, a man who murdered 77 people — who was sentenced to only 21 years — is seeking release after 10 years in prison.

You may remember Anders Behring Breivik, who hunted down children at a Labor Party summer camp. The sentence was 21 years because that was the maximum permitted, though the judge was able to add a provision for "preventive detention," based on his future danger to society. But, technically, he's eligible for parole, and he's taking advantage of this access back into the public eye.

WaPo reports that it is "unlikely that he will ever be released." His presentation to the court reflects an awareness of that: His lawyer says he's "not expected to show remorse," and he's having a "neo-Nazi leader" testifying for him. And if he sticks to his past courtroom behavior — as seen in his litigation over his prison conditions ("isolation in a three-room cell — equipped with video games, a DVD player, a typewriter, books, newspapers and exercise equipment") — he'll give a Nazi salute.

45 comments:

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

WaPoo found a white supremecist! How far they had to travel to find him.

gilbar said...

you know,
if you subsidize things, you get more of them
if you execute people that do the things, you get less of them

MadisonMan said...

He seems to like attention. How dreadful that the only way he could find it to his satisfaction was by killing kids.

Gahrie said...

as seen in his litigation over his prison conditions ("isolation in a three-room cell — equipped with video games, a DVD player, a typewriter, books, newspapers and exercise equipment")

In other words, exactly as the rest of us have been forced to live the last two years....

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

If the guy was a loyal democrat in 'merica - he'd be out by now.

Leland said...

Based on the described past history of the murderer, seeking early release from prison seems consistent. Is it news that convicts have conviction?

Big O's Meanings Dictionary said...

capital punishment - definition

A necessary evil, much like putting down a rabid dog.

There are those who oppose it but that's because they have never met - much like said rabid dog - someone in need of being put down.


Arguments:

Anti- Every human life is valuable.

Pro- Anders Behring Breivik

Mike Sylwester said...

The sentence was 21 years because that was the maximum permitted, though the judge was able to add a provision for "preventive detention," based on his future danger to society.

If the "maximum sentence" was 21 years, but the judge was able to add a provision for preventive detention, then the maximum sentence was not really 21 years.

Mike Sylwester said...

Norwegians sure are smart people to establish such a maximum sentence.

Joe Smith said...

Didn't know he was a Democrat...

Yancey Ward said...

He will serve the full 21 years, but I predict he will be released at that point. If they can find a country that will take him in, they may even parole him this time.

Virgil Hilts said...

I would release him onto the same island after letting public know the time & place of release and making sure the police were not going to interfere with the perp's new taste of freedom.

Paul said...

Let him out in the same woods he killed all those... and let the families of the dead have guns to hunt him down. That would save the taxpayers money, give the families a sense of justice, send a message to would-be mass murders, and one less mass murderer to deal with.

A real win-win!

Howard said...

You sound just like Achilles now April. Have you become a quisling or is it just your Stockholm Syndrome?

I agree with the other callers who want to see this Trump supporter murdered in Cold blood.

MadisonMan said...

@Paul, I think that's a real abrogation of civic duty on the part of the State. The State should not be engineering things such that citizens feel compelled to murder.

jim5301 said...

He's having a Neo-Nazi leader speak for him. Why not, it's only a short plane ride from his links in Scotland.

Big Mike said...

Eighty years ago there were plenty of Norwegians besides just Vidkun Quisling who collaborated with the Nazis. We don’t know that Anders Breivik is all that unique in his country with his Nazi salute.

MikeR said...

What is the argument against the death penalty again?

Big Mike said...

Now if the Norwegian government had had the common sense to make the maximum sentence 21 years per victim then Breivik would’ve been sentenced to jail for 1617 years. No problem about him getting out to kill again.

Amexpat said...

This guy is definitely not going to get released now or, most likely, during his lifetime. He has the legal right to ask for release now and is using that hopeless request to get publicity. And the press, here in Norway and internationally, oblige. Losers like him don't deserve any unnecessary publicity. It's the massive public attention that motivated him, and similar losers, to carry out their horrific acts.

Of course the onus is on him for the crimes he committed. But the media is partially to blame for these type of crimes through the excessive coverage they give.

William said...

God should be the only one to grant pardon for this man's sins. God is said to have infinite mercy. You need that kind of mercy to pardon this kind of sin. Giving this guy a three room suite with a pleasant view is as much a travesty of justice as it was to hang pickpockets in an earlier era....His crime is that he killed dozens of children, not that he gives a Nazi salute. Apparently what keeps him in "prison" is that he gives Nazi salutes. Well, whatever works.....I'm opposed to killing children and to giving Nazi salutes, but I come down much harder on the mass killing of children.

Amexpat said...

If the "maximum sentence" was 21 years, but the judge was able to add a provision for preventive detention, then the maximum sentence was not really 21 years.

Not really. With preventive detention, the burden of proof is on the State to prove that the defendant is a risk to society and needs to stay in jail. Sort of the opposite of parole where the inmate needs to convince the Court that he's ready to go back to society.

Earnest Prole said...

Nazis — I hate these guys!

Amexpat said...

What is the argument against the death penalty again?

I taught at the law school here in Oslo for over 20 years. One of the classes I taught was about the US legal system. My focus was on aspects of the US legal system that differed from the Norwegian. In this context, we studied and talked about the DP in the US. I can't recall any students being in favor of the DP in Norway, though many understood how it made sense in the US. This view did not change after the massacre that the loser committed, despite the fact that many of the students knew someone who was killed. (One of my ex-students died in the explosion that he set off at a government building and another was a survivor on the island where he massacred many young people.)

The general reasoning for this was that they felt that this loser should not change their values or the type of society they wanted to live in.

Emil Blatz said...

Terminate with extreme prejudice.

Critter said...

Change the ideology of the serial killer from Nazi to oppressed minority and you see what the future holds in store for America if Democrats/Leftists/Progressives/Neo-Marxists get their way.

stlcdr said...

Mike Sylwester said...
"The sentence was 21 years because that was the maximum permitted, though the judge was able to add a provision for "preventive detention," based on his future danger to society."

If the "maximum sentence" was 21 years, but the judge was able to add a provision for preventive detention, then the maximum sentence was not really 21 years.

1/18/22, 9:11 AM


That was my thought. 21 years is 21 years. He should be out regardless of how many Nazi salutes he gives. If you don't want a Nazi on the street after 21 years, then don't sentence them to that time (granted, some countries consider the act of a salute a crime).

If you can decide to hold someone in jail 'just because' then we are not going to be in for a very good future. This is part of the retardation of modern society.

Tarrou said...

Given that our universities are chock-full of former terrorists and current terrorist sympathizers, shouldn't Breivik be released and given tenure?

Oh, I forgot, he's the wrong brand terrorist.

Rollo said...

Stupid Brevik. Norway stayed out of the EU and all of its follies. Idiot boy should have realized how lucky he and his country were.

holdfast said...

The very fact that he is still drawing breath makes a mockery of the Norwegian “justice” system, but just in case that’s not enough he likes to continue to mock it to its face at every opportunity.

tim in vermont said...

They should execute him to save the cost of imprisoning him, but it also gave me the creeps that the lefties had set up indoctrination camps for children to create future socialist leaders. National Socialists and International Socialists are fraternal twins, and such a camp sounds like it could have been invented by Hitler, and probably was.

Does creating a camp to indoctrinate children in politics

Old and slow said...

Amexpat, thank you for your comments. People like you are the reason I read the comments section here (and very few other sites). I was beginning to lose hope, but lately I've seen worthwhile contributions from many posters who I had written off as hopeless partisan blowhards. I won't name names because I'd rather not inflame passions, but my list of sometime "blowhards" runs the gamut ideologically.

Amexpat said...

but it also gave me the creeps that the lefties had set up indoctrination camps
All the political parties in Norway have youth wings that organize meetings and have training programs for future leaders, including the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) which roughly corresponds to the Tea Party movement in the US . These youth wings are independent from the mother party. They tend to be more idealistic and less pragmatic than the mother party, which usually tries to moderate them.

Calling them indoctrination camps along the lines of what the NS had is either made out of ignorance or is a stupid and tasteless provocation.

svlc said...

Canada has 25 yr maximum sentences (we call that a "life sentence"). But, for special cases, we also have Dangerous Offender provisions that permit keeping an offender in prison indefinitely. And, that has been used on several occasions.

Rabel said...

Amex, I read a bit about the AUF and it's programs and it's not at all unreasonable to call their Summer camps "indoctrination" camps.

The Vault Dweller said...

The older I get the more and more arguments against the Death Penalty seem childish.

Amexpat said...

Amex, I read a bit about the AUF and it's programs and it's not at all unreasonable to call their Summer camps "indoctrination" camps.

The AUF is the youth wing of the Labor Party, which today is a mild mannered, center left party. Jens Stoltenberg, who is the current head of NATO and a previous Prime Minister of Norway, was a leader of the AUF. The Labor Party did have radical leftist connections in 1920's, but by the 50s the party had pretty much excluded anyone that was a hard core leftist.

I have no first hand experience of their summer camp, but I've known people who have attended, including students. None of them are hard core idealists. Do you have a link to any text that made it reasonable for you to equate their summer camp to an "indoctrination" camp along the lines of the Hitler youth or the Komsomol?

JaimeRoberto said...

I understand the arguments against the death penalty. I even agree with some of them. But some people just need killing.

Rabel said...

I didn't say they were along the lines of Hitler youth or the Komsomol. I said they were reasonably called "indoctrination camps."

And they are. That's their purpose from the reporting I see on Norwegian sites.

And the AUF may fit your definition of "center left" but not mine.

You can find your own links.

Fred Drinkwater said...

I'm happy with a 21 year max.
Per murder.
Served consecutively.

iowan2 said...

Really, Norway. Is that the best you got?

America says, "hold my beer!"

A Roanoke man who got three life sentences plus more than a century in prison for his role in a fatal robbery spree in the mid-1980s has been set free after about 33 years behind bars.

https://mdmh-roanoke.com/roanoke-man-given-3-life-terms-for-1986-killing-is-paroled-after-33-years/

jg said...

although i think the real scheme of labour (uk) wrt immigration 'import a new people and so hold power forever' was objectively evil, no one should endorse child hunting; likely the families and their children don't think of themselves as evildoers and i'd prefer not to be subject in this way to the moral judgment of every extremist whacko out there.

ken in tx said...

In a conversation with a German exchange student, she expressed surprise that churches in the US had youth programs--classes, trips, camps, sports, etc. She was used to political parties doing that. From her I learned that Churches don't do that in Europe.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Once his time his served he can take a flight to the US and shoot up some synagogues. What's to stop him?

Nichevo said...

He'll be too busy being elected President of Norway.