Sun. column ping. Howie off tomorrow for personal stuff, McPhee in (yikes)
Murderer’s surgery seems like cruel step
By Howie Carr | Sunday, September 23, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo by Herald (file)
I’m very confused lately by the Eighth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
My understanding has always been that it bans “cruel and unusual punishment.” Yet now there is a federal court decision saying that not castrating a convicted wife murderer so he can become what he considers to be a woman is an “unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.”
In other words, not mutilating this killer constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The operation in question has several different names. Sexual reassignment surgery. Vaginoplasty.
Of course I’m talking about the case of Michelle Kosilek, formerly known as Robert. He’s been in prison since 1990, when he strangled his wife with wire and left her body in a mall parking lot. Her name was Cheryl McCaul. Mish Kosilek never mentions her, for obvious reasons.
There are conflicting stories about how much anguish Mish has suffered during the years in stir. Her court appearances started 12 years ago, so I guess she was OK with being a guy for a decade. But now, some of the news stories mention that she has attempted suicide twice. Yet in an interview with the Associated Press, Mish said that “at several points ... (I) was very close to committing suicide.”
So did you attempt suicide, Mish, or were you just very close?
In the AP interview, she said that she and “the sisters” (by which I think Mish means the others who are now queuing up for their surgeries) have decided that the outrage about the court decision “is bigotry related to gender identity disorder.”
No, Mish, it’s bigotry against murderers gaming the system. By the way, the word is that at least one of the “sisters” has killed not one, but two women. How’d you like to be one of the real “sisters” at MCI-Framingham if the Department of Correction eventually starts moving these people into the women’s prison?
The DOC declines to comment on where Mish and the sisters might be moved if there is a change in their ... status. Currently, Mish is incarcerated at MCI-Norfolk.
Another baffling piece of this story: The sex-change operation was being opposed by the liberal Democrat administration of Gov. Deval Patrick. And the judge who ordered Mish’s procedure is Mark Wolf, an appointee of then-President Ronald Reagan.
What precedents does this case set? How about if some jailbird decides he wants to commit suicide? He can claim he is suffering from livingophobia, and not giving him enough cyanide to off himself is ... cruel and unusual punishment.
How about drug addicts? They’re not allowed drugs in prison. Talk about cruel and unusual.
Here’s one more AP soundbite from Mish:
“To those who don’t understand gender identity disorder, I understand that there is a reluctance to even think about this in a serious vein because to the average person ... this must seem bizarre.”
You got that right, Mish.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061162358