VAN DER SLOOT GOT OFF TOO EASY

The confessed killer Joran van der Sloot got off too easy, in my opinion. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison in Peru for the murder of a young Peruvian woman.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/joran-van-der-sloot-sentencing_n_1204663.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief

More than likely, he also murdered Natalee Holloway. After he gets out of prison--he could be eligible for parole in nine years--he could be extradited to the USA and tried for the Holloway murder.

In my opinion, he is a psychopath who is likely to kill again, if he ever gets the chance.

He is the reason why the death penalty was invented. That is the only way to stop him, in my opinion. He is 23 now and could be 32 when released. If he is not brought to the U.S. and convicted, he could be on the loose. Even if he served the entire 28 years, he would be only be 51 when released, young enough to kill again. Psychopaths don't have any reason to reform. (See Robert D. Hare's book "Without Conscience.")

In theory, I am dubious about the value of the death penalty. But not in his case. He should be sent to the great beyond, to the happy hunting ground, as soon as possible.

-- Roger

Copyright © 2012, Roger R. Angle

KILLING THE KILLERS

I have been reading a special section on capital punishment in Newsweek:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/25/ordering-death-in-georgia-prisons.html

I used to believe in putting vicious killers to death. The men who dragged that black man to death in Texas. The man who chopped off that girl's arms years ago in California. Ted Bundy, who killed some 160 young women.

Those horrible crimes seemed to deserve a firm response. The death penalty seemed to say: We won't allow this. We will stop you from killing again. You don't deserve to live. You are no longer welcome on this Earth. We need to protect innocent people from you. Some crimes are too horrible to bear.

And in some cases, executing the murderers seemed the only remedy. A few years ago, a group of Aryan Brotherhood leaders were on trial for ordering murders from behind bars:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/us/29aryan.html

They were in maximum security prisons, yet still ordering death. Killing them seemed like the only way to stop them.

But I have changed my mind. I still have a strong emotional attraction to the death penalty. My blood boils when I read about certain crimes. I have thought about it long and hard.

The death penalty seems like a good idea in the abstract. Like going to war. Like wrestling Ken Kesey when he was alive, if you were a horse's ass literary critic or editor. Like shooting Pablo Escobar, famous South American drug kingpin.

Yet the death penalty exacts its own price on those who carry it out. Ever seen the "thousand-yard stare" of men who return from war? Ever seen the ragged, desolate look of a homeless Vietnam vet? Read in Newsweek about those who have carried out society's most gruesome task.

Executioners and our military personnel have killed for abstract ideas. On our orders. And look where it got them. Look where it got us. Death is no deterrent.

What would it be like if each one of us had to pull the lever, at least once, to kill a man or a woman? I believe that would change the whole picture.

I say, let the killing stop. It doesn't do what we want it to do. It doesn't accomplish what we want it to accomplish. It doesn't say what we want it to say.

It is an exercise in futility. And barbarity.

Enough. Let it stop.

Join Amnesty International and others in their crusade to stop the death penalty:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/

-- Roger

NOTE: I have since changed my mind, yet again.

Copyright © 2011, Roger R. Angle