I always thought those poor Menendez boys should have been treated with leniency. After all, they were orphans.
You forgot the </ sarcasm> tag. Self-made orphans, indeed.
In my view, even after 20 years of appeals, death is too easy for murderers because it ends their suffering. However, the only way I support the present move toward life without possibility of parole as the most severe punishment is when it is also life in the strictest form of solitary confinment.
By the strictest form of solitary confinment, I mean complete solitude with absolutely no priviledges and no activities to divert their minds from the contemplation of their crimes. I visualize this as soundproof, padded cell kept in perpetual twilight; a cell kept at a temperature that is neither hot nor cold; a cell one never leaves; a cell where one will eat the same unvarying starvation-level meal, not too little and not too much, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. (Think something like vitamin-laced oatmeal made with beef broth.) No television, no radio, no books, no pen and paper, no nothing. The door closes and locks the condemned prisoner inside with their thoughts forever.
IOW, make the confinement the closest living equivalent of the tomb they sent their victims to. The purpose is punishment, not reform. BTW, if they go insane, so much the better; no medications as it increases their suffering.