[DiogenesLamp]

Murder Charge Dropped For Teen Accused Of Decapitating Mother "Because I Felt Like It"

I have always believed that if someone is "nuts", that is all the more reason they need to be executed if they commit a horrific crime.

[onedoug]

BTT!

[Enlightened1]

Exactly!

When has murder been considered a sane act?

[yuleeyahoo]

From the scene in "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein, shortly after a child-killer is executed by hanging:

That night I tried to figure out how such things could be kept from happening. Of course, they hardly ever do nowadays—but even once is ‘way too many. I never did reach an answer that satisfied me. This Dillinger — he looked like anybody else, and his behavior and record couldn’t have been too odd or he would never have reached Camp Currie in the first place. I suppose he was one of those pathological personalities you read about—no way to spot them.

Well, if there was no way to keep it from happening once, there was only one sure way to keep it from happening twice. Which we had used.

If Dillinger had understood what he was doing (which seemed incredible) then he got what was coming to him. .. except that it seemed a shame that he hadn’t suffered as much as had little Barbara Anne — he practically hadn’t suffered at all.

But suppose, as seemed more likely, that he was so crazy that he had never been aware that he was doing anything wrong? What then?

Well, we shoot mad dogs, don’t we?

Yes, but being crazy that way is a sickness—

I couldn’t see but two possibilities. Either he couldn’t be made well in which case he was better dead for his own sake and for the safety of others—or he could be treated and made sane. In which case (it seemed to me) if he ever became sane enough for civilized society. .. and thought over what he had done while he was “sick”—what could be left for him but suicide? How could he live with himself?

And suppose he escaped before he was cured and did the same thing again? And maybe again? How do you explain that to bereaved parents? In view of his record?

I couldn’t see but one answer.

…..

I wondered how Colonel Dubois would have classed Dillinger. Was he a juvenile criminal who merited pity even though you had to get rid of him? Or was he an adult delinquent who deserved nothing but contempt?

I didn’t know, I would never know. The one thing I was sure of was that he would never again kill any little girls.

That suited me. I went to sleep.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Locking them up, like you mean it is apt punishment as far as I'm concerned. You can't undo what they've done. All you can really do is deter the next guy.

Our mental health systems so F'd up. I'm sure the committal process has been abused in the past (such as the Kennedy daughter), but these loons can't be left on the street. There's not a Karl Childers in the bunch

It seems that the psychotics are all known and just quit taking their meds. They have to be tracked on a daily basis in perpetuity. One day off the meds it should be back to the funny farm for awhile.

The ACLU thinks otherwise. There lies the root cause. It's a true bleeding heart liberal mantra.

[apocalypto]

Absolutely!

[captain_dave]

I agree with you. Society needs protection from the truly insane.

[BenLurkin]

Ditto

[Twotone]

Agreed. They are a danger to everyone around them. And eventually they WILL be released & do something horrific again.

[lavaroise]

I agree, evil and craziness are not mutually exclusive. And many people with mental illness have controlled themselves with morality and the Bible. THe worst part in psychiatry nowadays is that the patient is a client and thus always right, and if he , say, rapes a nurse, she is punished. It is fracking nuts.

[Sam Gamgee]

Isn’t this a bit high handed for the State to do this? Shouldn’t a jury be able to weigh in on whether or not this man is psychotic? Seems to set a bad precedent.