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Geoghan's Death Is Described
Washington Post ^ | 8/25/03 | Jonathan Finer

Posted on 08/24/2003 8:30:56 PM PDT by hole_n_one

washingtonpost.com

Geoghan's Death Is Described
Fellow Inmate Jammed Cell Door During Attack

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 25, 2003; Page A01

BOSTON, Aug. 24 -- John J. Geoghan, the former priest and convicted child molester killed in a Massachusetts prison Saturday, was followed into his cell just after lunch by a fellow inmate who bound and gagged him before strangling him with a bed sheet, according to a union representative for prison guards.

The attacker, whom authorities identified as Joseph L. Druce, jammed the electronically operated cell door to prevent guards from opening it. He tied Geoghan's hands behind his back with a sheet and gagged him. He then repeatedly jumped from the bed in the cell onto Geoghan's motionless body and beat the defrocked priest with his fists.

Only one correction officer was on duty in the protective custody unit at the time, according to an account of the attack provided by Robert Brouillette, an executive of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, who interviewed correction officers for seven hours Saturday. State and county officials involved in the investigation would not comment on Brouillette's description.

Druce entered Geoghan's cell just before noon, Brouillette said, when the prisoners left their one-person concrete cells to return their lunch trays. The solid cell door has a chest-high window that guards can look through as they pass by. When the officer on duty heard noises coming from Geoghan's cell but could not open the cell door from the control panel at his station, other officers were summoned by walkie-talkie. It took several of them to pry open the door.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: geoghan; jailhousejustice; killed
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Now, before you confuse me with the other folks you attempt to bully, individuals like Druce and Geoghan both deserve punishment by the laws of men modeled after the laws of God. God judges the heart, we can only judge the actions.

I would say the state of Massachusetts is culpable in its failure to execute a convicted murderer named Druce. Now, I might be in favor of Geoghan's execution, but few juries in America execute rapists and/or pedophiles unless they also commit murder or attemped murder at the same time (or some other special circumstance).

Because the state of Massachusetts failed in its moral responsibility to execute Druce, it will most likely be sued, by some group, for its failure to protect one piece of offal from another piece of offal.

I'd say those who support the re-establishment of the death penalty in Massachusetts may garner more support because of this wonderful little morality play....

181 posted on 08/25/2003 4:39:25 PM PDT by freebilly
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To: pgkdan
You must temper mercy with justice. In this case justice was finally done by an Aryan Nation guy.

I can summon up few feelings of mercy for a predator who raped numerous boys from troubled homes.
182 posted on 08/25/2003 4:42:14 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
In other words, justice, and right and wrong are simply a function of time and circumstance?

Legal justice also includes a COMPETENT AUTHORITY.

The Nazi who killed Geoghan was just a Nazi, a lifer who gets prison cred for taking out a weak pathetic old man.

183 posted on 08/25/2003 5:04:44 PM PDT by sinkspur (God's law is written on men's hearts, not a stone monument.)
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To: dennisw
You must temper mercy with justice. In this case justice was finally done by an Aryan Nation guy.

Who is free to live out the rest of his life, on taxpayer money, without having to answer to men for committing murder.

Justice may or may not have been served by Druce, but Druce should be made to pay for his crime, too.

184 posted on 08/25/2003 5:06:03 PM PDT by freebilly
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To: hole_n_one
This guy got only 9-10 years for molesting maybe a 100 boys. He probably would have been out in less time for good behavior. Justice would have been served had he been sentenced to a public stoning.
185 posted on 08/25/2003 5:12:20 PM PDT by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: sinkspur
Tonight's edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann had their coverage of the Geoghan murder ending with a song leading into the commercial break....

Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock.

(Olbermann was not hosting....some Jessica Savitch looking type person was)

186 posted on 08/25/2003 5:30:31 PM PDT by hole_n_one
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
So what if he has a grudge against homosexuals? I would never condone violence against a person who has consensual sexual relations with another adult. That's not what we are talking about here, is it?

I merely quoted what the article said that Druce's father said about him.....I was not expressing an opinion.

187 posted on 08/25/2003 7:57:36 PM PDT by JulieRNR21 (Take W-04....Across America!)
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To: pgkdan
Have they ever heard of redemption, mercy, "...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..."?

Did Geoghan trespass against you? Then by all means forgive him.

But you have no right or authority to forgive him of trespasses he committed against others.

This incident is about the failure of the criminal justice system--not a morality contest to see who can most magnanimously and posthumously forgive Geoghan of the sexual abuses he committed against 150 young boys.

For the sake of his soul we may hope that he tried to find forgiveness. But that's about it.

188 posted on 08/25/2003 8:07:00 PM PDT by Kevin Curry
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To: pgkdan
Maybe someone will bash Druce's head in next. I hope so!
189 posted on 08/25/2003 8:11:40 PM PDT by Tiger_eye
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To: sinkspur
Nazi or not, the molesting priest got what he deserved. End of story.
190 posted on 08/25/2003 8:42:01 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: sinkspur
In the great scheme of things...I'm not overly broken up over Geoghan's death.

I just wish that the neo-Nazi scumbag could get the death penalty so we could get a twofer.
191 posted on 08/25/2003 8:43:53 PM PDT by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.)
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To: thoughtomator
Surprised that he didn't get raped too in the process.

The attacker was obviously not a big fan of the sodomy-without-consent crowd. For every other horrible thing he's done, at least this one wasn't so bad. It's win-win-win, really: Geoghan dies, the Nazi murderer gets punished (he's a murderer because he strangled another person, not for killing Geoghan), and the media focuses on a real issue, which is that prison conditions are unacceptably bad.

192 posted on 08/25/2003 8:45:10 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: pgkdan
The whole story is total BS. Those guards could not be
unable to enter a cell and stop an attack. You will see
that there was a provocation or some personal interaction
between the killer and the dead priest.
193 posted on 08/25/2003 9:01:18 PM PDT by phrespearit
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
This guy got only 9-10 years for molesting maybe a 100 boys. He probably would have been out in less time for good behavior. Justice would have been served had he been sentenced to a public stoning.

That's not true. He was serving 10 yrs for a single groping incident. Had he lived he would have faced many more trials in more judrisdictions.

194 posted on 08/25/2003 9:36:03 PM PDT by pgkdan
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To: Kevin Curry
But you have no right or authority to forgive him of trespasses he committed against others.

I never claimed that right. I merely make the point that Geoghan was murdered in cold blood and that murder is always a crime and never justice. Just as I have no right to forgive for what he did to others, nobody has the right to commit cold blooded murder...and nobody should cheer such a crime as justice.

195 posted on 08/25/2003 9:45:45 PM PDT by pgkdan
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To: sinkspur
Hey, you......

lookie here.

196 posted on 08/25/2003 10:49:23 PM PDT by hole_n_one
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