I PLEAD for it to just STOP! How about that deal?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I respect all your positions and arguments and I fully understand why the emotional investment in the case. I'd be angry too if I was one of those girls parents. I'd be furious beyond the ability to think rationally. I'd want to kill him, I'd want to do cruel things to him.

But emotion can't play a role when deciding another's fate; pretty much like the man who choose to kill when he caught his wife cheating.

I just think we as a society know too little of the human psyche and of life as a whole to be standing around playing God.

Maybe he is evil, his acts were definitely EVIL, but we do not fully understand where this evil originates from. So whether he had a choice in the matter or whether he was the victim of a deranged mind we don't know.

reply to post by superman2012


I live in South Africa where mob justice is a common occurrence but what happens often is they kill the wrong people or someone blames someone for something just out of spite and pure malice. People around here don't trust the cops to do their work, I agree, but hell I don't want to be someone blamed for something which I might not have done.

Not that I'm saying this man is innocent, just explaining why mob justice is not the answer.

To be honest, I don't have an answer for you? I don't know. I wish I knew. It's quite complex.

But now we're left with this dilemma - what do we do with this man? We kill him because its an easier solution or is there something else we can do? I don't know.

I'd post a vid of mob justice in S.A. but its quite gruesome.

reply to post by JosephPalasky


I respect your position here as well. Normally, I come down very firmly in the intellectual side of things and can think a matter to death...zap it back to life and think it to death again, just for good measure.

This isn't emotion tho. I don't know the guy. I don't know the victims. I've got nothing personal invested and hearing or not hearing about this has changed my life in absolutely no way, whatsoever. So, his fate is of no personal consequence to me, either way.

Having said that, I do have an interest as a citizen in the direction and efficacy of the legal system (I can't bring myself to call it a justice system right now). That's where my outrage on this comes from. The outrage is being indignant over how this is happening, not passionate about the result.

This is wildly unfair because our system was not designed to be one where the fate or the mercies delivered on a person for a crime came from the decision of a single man, outside of one wearing black and carrying the title 'Your Honor'. A Prosecutor isn't...and in my view, should not HAVE this kind of discretion on the worst cases of this nature.

What if the prosecutor had a real soft spot, in some warped way for what this guy did in some specific twist? So...he decides Life Without Parole isn't fair either? Well, we can HOPE the Judge catches that one and shuts it down ....but I could show you a story about an Oklahoma Judge thrown off the bench for being caught masturbating DURING TRIALS...and some of them, murder trials...to give a sense of how much we should place full confidence in a Judge as the last chance to catch a bad mistake.


Our system was designed, start to finish, as one where judgement or lack of it, comes from our peers, by Jury trial. So it has been and so it should be, especially on high felony crimes. Without exception, in my view. We can all whine with cheese about Jury verdicts ..but in the end? We must accept that's how it works and we'd HOPE it worked that way if we were the accused. "Justice" given or Mercy handed out like a door prize by one man, not designated to HAVE that power?

No.... That's where indignation comes in.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Ah, yes, I can agree with you on that.

As a law student I've thought to myself quite often the legal systems, all over, are imperfect. There is just too much room for mistakes, corruption and other personal interests(like you've said). So how can we ever be sure justice has been served?

You watch some reality shows and it seems like courts have been turned into a circus instead of an place we're just punishment or reward is served based on the facts. Too many mistakes have been made where innocent people have been sentenced.

Hence why I'm against capital punishment. So living in a world where all systems are flawed, where there's soooo much room for mistakes, playing with an idea like the death penalty is a very dangerous one.

Our imperfection as human beings are reflected in the systems we build.

reply to post by JosephPalasky

Just as many, I'm sure more actually, are wrongly imprisoned. That doesn't mean that all prisons should be emptied.

I'm not advocating mob justice. I just think in a clear cut case, absolutely no doubt, the person should be executed.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Rates for the prosecutors office

You don't get promotions and public office with good character, only good numbers. It's BS and I agree with you. I'm glad you pointed out that plea bargains have a place at times, but in these heinous cases I don't care how much they need to spend to lock the bastards up.