"... to correspond with his friends, perhaps including a pen pal whom he said he wanted to marry. He’ll have recreation time, be able to play sports and maybe even watch his favorite teams compete on TV. Opponents of capital punishment often claim that life in prison is worse than death.... Instead of putting him out of his misery, they insist, keep him alive so he’ll really suffer. Three decades of documenting daily life on death rows and inside maximum security prisons.... have taught me.... the most vicious criminals often have the best jobs, best hustles and easiest lives.... Mr. Cruz’s hopes, expectations and dreams for his own future remain realistic...."
Writes lawprof Robert Blecker, author of "The Death of Punishment: Searching for Justice Among the Worst of the Worst," in "If Not the Parkland Shooter, Who Is the Death Penalty For?" (NYT).
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32 comments:
All he needs is an X-Box and he'll be in Heaven.
The person who killed 10 people in a Boulder super market - no death pen
The Aurora Theater shooter - no death pen
there is always one jury with a bleeding heart doing this. Makes me sick.
These mass killers of innocent need to be put to death. For retribution.
We cannot build new prison cells fast enough to house the growing number of murderers.
For that reason, we have to release more and more criminals from our prisons.
Because more and more criminals are released, more and more innocent people will be murdered.
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The certainty of such murders should be weighed against the consideration that an innocent person might be executed.
Parkland shorter should have been six feet under within a week of his rampage. His guilt was never at question, take him
out back, one bullet, saves the tax payers millions and removes useless DNA from the gene pool
Life in prison? Blow jobs for life - given and recieved.
If there's to be a death penalty, it should be public and not comforting to the executed. Show the wage that puts the stamp of paid to evil.
Summary judgment, clinical prosecution, cannibalized parts, sequestered pollutants? Climate justice! Social progress! Babies... uh, Fetal-Babies... People of Pink, of course. Off with her head!
The certainty of such murders should be weighed against the consideration that an innocent person might be executed.
Do you think there is any doubt that Cruz is guilty? Do you think there is any doubt that Brooks is guilty?
I have no problem with life in prison for the difficult and iffy cases....but this isn't one of them.
The second biggest problem facing our nation today is a lack of consequences. (The first is the lack of fathers in the home)
Wisconsin repealed the death penalty in 1853. The Kenosha Christmas parade murderer surely deserved it.
And wasn't Dahmer in Milwaukee?
should be weighed against the consideration that an innocent person might be executed.
Yes, precisely. While the systemic rape... rape-rape allegation was a witch hunt, the collateral, forward-looking damage of State-sanctioned elective abortion, redistribution, and sequestration of millions of viable, innocent human lives, and denying the dignity and agency of women and girls, and men and boys, too, was, is a clear and progressive condition of social justice and injustice.
Put them to work turning big rocks into little rocks.
These criminals live more comfortable lives than homeless veterans.
Bullets are still cheap I hear...
"He looked forward, he said, to a better diet in prison, with more vegetables and fewer carbs. Life in prison will allow him..."
At least he is half right about the diet stuff.
The biggest problem with the Death Penalty is they would be executing a lifetime democrat voter.
On the other hand just because he is dead doesn't mean he wont still be voting for democrats...
One benefit of prison: no need to cook or shop for food, free medical care, and six-pac abs.
Seriously, rather odd that the anti-death penalty NYT's would print such an Op-ed piece. But liberals are always known for their principleless exceptions to their Grand Principles. Y'know: "I'm a liberal who believes in X, except when...". Examples:
I'm against the death penalty except when its rightwinger like Tim McViegh
or
I"m against harsh sentences for 1st offenders except when its the Jan 6th protesters
or
I'm in favor of free speech, except when its "hate speech".
or
I'm a pacifist and against wars except when its Iraq, afghanistan, or the Ukraine.
In a few years he'll shed his old self and wonder what that was all about, why did he do it? Who was that boy?
Like these poor transteens who don't know wtf they're doing.
So, he's 'looking forward' to a better life in prison. I can't see any justice there, can anyone else? None of his victims can look forward, because none of them have lives. Blecker has made a very good point.
the most vicious criminals often have the best jobs, best hustles and easiest lives
Is there some reason why it has to be this way? Is there some reason why this is the only alternative to the death penalty?
How long did Dahmer last in prison, before another inmate killed him? In what year of his incarceration did Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, have his throat cut in a murder attempt? How many days was Epstein incarcerated before not killing himself to death?
Trying to establish a baseline to compare in future against the people discussed here.
On the other hand, Manson famously spent decades in solitary until his death, while claiming that he had free access to all the drugs and sex he wanted because of his fame.
YMMV in prison, I suppose.
"If Not the Parkland Shooter, Who Is the Death Penalty For?"
For Enemies Of The Regime™. Duh.
(Sheesh. Are all lawprofs this naive, or only almost all of them?)
If we can't execute the very obviously guilty, then life in prison in solitary confinement would be appropriate. We have done this with those only suspected of terrorism, many without trial.
Use him for parts.
Nikolas Cruz should be preceded into the death chambers by (a) the psychiatrists who evaluated him and claimed that he was no danger to himself or to others; (b) the gym teacher who was outside the building and saw Cruz approach the fence carrying a backpack (he knew that Cruz was not allowed on campus with a backpack) and a rifle case, yet did not confront him nor did he call the police; (c) a second gym teacher who was contacted by the one outside, and who chosen to hide instead of locking doors or initiating a lockdown or even calling the police; (d) the school resource officer who ran and hid instead of confronting Cruz; and (e) the Broward deputies with not only declined to enter the building to confront Cruz, but who herded students from the other buildings out into the school courtyard. Cruz was by then in a room overlooking the courtyard, and tried to shoot more children, but his anemic .223 rounds could not penetrate the hurricane-resistant glass in the windows.
"the most vicious criminals often have the best jobs, best hustles and easiest lives"
At our expense. Cuz justice.
Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. That Serbian guy, who fortuitously died of a heart attack, was charged with the murder of 17,000 people and was incarcerated in a cell that would rent for over $2000 a month if it were located in my neighborhood. Ditto with that Norwegian who killed all those kids....Murderers should suffer a punishment that makes the friends and relatives of the murdered feel that the bastard got what's coming to him. They should not have to read about how the murderer has really turned his life around and is teaching fellow inmates how to draw or appeal their cases or whatever.....The murderer doesn't necessarily have to be executed (although that helps with the relatives' grieving process) but the murderer does have to suffer an enclosed and unhappy life.
Ted K. (AKA the unibomber) is currently serving his life sentence in the nations only “Supermax” prison in Colorado.
He lives in a cell with only a skylight so as to not be able to orientate himself to the outside world. He poses no physical threat to any of his jailers. So, exactly what threat does he pose?
His manifesto had at its core the belief that computers/artificial intelligence would be the undoing of the human race.
He chose Mail bombs as a means to alert the world to this perceived threat.
We pretend to fear the insane, while in reality we fear the sane.
"He chose Mail bombs as a means to alert the world to this perceived threat."
That totally makes sense...not...
Richard Speck regarding his prison time: `If they only knew how much fun I was having in here, they would turn me loose,″
https://apnea's.com/article/caa5b94ca71e5b3edd129a46de1da7c5
Does it really matter if he is sentenced to death? Will it ever be carried out? Hayes and Komisarjevsky were both sentenced to death for rape, murder, and arson in Connecticut, but they will never be exdcuted.
What is the appropriate punishment for Ted Buddy?
@Levi Starks, Prof. David Gelernter, one of the Unabomber’s targets, agrees with some of what Ted Kaczynski claims to believe. That didn’t stop Kaczynski from sending a bomb to Gelernter, which nearly killed him and did cost him a hand and an eye. For the record, and without knowing you, I am certain that one David Gelernter is worth a million or so of you.
First, the death penalty is absolutely constitutional. I used to support it 100%. But over the last 20 years (longer?) its proven the govt is too corrupt to carry out the death penalty. The DoJ is doing morning swat raids on non violent people protesting abortion clinics. While at the same time refusing to even investigate violence perpetrated on Pregnancy centers that actually counsel people on planned parenthood.
The death penalty was used as a bargaining chip to get Jake Wagner in Pike County, Ohio to tell the state where he and his family had gotten rid of the guns they used to kill 8 Rhoden family members in a custody dispute. The State took death off the table for him, his father, and his brother in exchange for the evidence and his testimony. The trial is underway on several YouTube channels if anybody reading this is a trial buff.
So it's good for that.
as with most things liberals touch, the prison system and the courts are totally corrupt now.
We are beginning to see the results, not just criminals released after major crimes, but when released they kill again.
another result, which I view as a positive, is people taking it upon themselves to find justice, or revenge.
If the courts, and the police, The FBI and the DOJ refuse to impartially enforce the law, then the people will do it. and it will get very messy, fast.
Congratulations to all those who willingly helped to corrupt the legal system.and a special HT to those who saw it happening and did nothing. You succeeded, and now you can watch as normal people react to the anarchy and chaos you helped to create.
If Justice isn't on offer, victims will stop leaving its enforcement up to the State.
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