Acd, innocent people die as victims of those who deserve a death penalty, too. Criminology is quite ahead already, they can extract DNA, compare and so on. I believe there is a way to be absolutely sure about things. My point is that I prefer death penalty rather than imprisonment for life. And I accept the fact that some people think in a different way.
Bored Now, I am sorry to hear about your mother. And I can imagine how she felt to hear that this criminal got out and did the same again. I wouldn't feel sad or sorry that this happened to him, too. And he got it for just stealing a purse! Fate does have a sense of humor. This is exactly what I meant - people who do such things should not get the chance to do them again! I will paste here the part of the article that shows what pisses me off the most: "He was convicted in 1978 of four rapes and 13 related sex, burglary and robbery offenses and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
But he served 16 years after getting time off for good behavior. He spent his one year of parole in prison before being released in December and moving to Gary.
At the time of Muldrew's release, Christine May, a California Correction Department spokeswoman, said a psychiatrist found Muldrew had a mental disorder and was still dangerous. But she said he had completed his sentence, and "there was nothing anyone could do. . . . We had to release him." WTF is this - 16 out of 25 and "there was nothing anyone could do"? Mental disorder, dangerous ... how can someone even allow such a deviant to walk free? There is something very wrong with current system. It is a bit of offtopic indeed but I like the discussion and it was interesting for me. I just wonder if people who are more religious in a way will prefer life imprisonment instead of death penalty (they call it capital punishment in the US?). And if the opinion about that is formed somewhat in childhood, influenced by the family, surroundings and so on.
May, I see where you come from as well. Very nice post by the way. I believe in one more thing - the longer you stay in prison, the more alienate you become to the real world. It is a complicated matter to discuss, people have different starting points and I guess prioritize different things. You value the life itself, but isn't the life of the victims just as important as the life of the criminal? I know that killing the murderer will not give the life back of the victims, nor it will turn back time to prevent his disgusting behavior. But he will partially pay for what he's done. You might think it is strange but when I was a child, about 3-4 years old I witnessed something that still bothers me and I still see the pictures clear in my head. It was right after a pouring rain, there was a huge pool in the street and a bunch of small birds were there bathing, drinking and so on. Quite a lively and noisy moment which I watched with pleasure and a big smile. Then all of a sudden this huge truck with his endless number of tires came. Some of the birds managed to escape, most didn't. After the truck passed, all that was left was a pile of feathers, blood, death birds bodies in the pool. How my poor heart broke in this moment and how I cried several days after that. And how I cursed the driver. It still shakes me to think about it.
asd, I agree with you - they will choose to live because as long as they are alive, there is always the chance to get out of prison and commit a new crime. You are right, I will start a new thread.