Inspired by the Pitting of the media’s glee over Martha’s imprisonment
I have to say I sympathize more for Dahmer than for Martha. He seemed a pitiful sick creature. She’s just a rich heartless bitch.
A pitiful, sick creature…I think that sums him up well. I always felt sorry for Jeffrey Dahmer, myself. And like I said in the other thread, people look at me like I’m crazy every time I do, usually followed by their description of how awful they thought he was.
But much moreso than any other serial killer I can think of, he truly seemed to feel guilt and remorse over the crimes that his compulsions led him to commit. He cooperated fully with the authorities once he was found out, and he seemed more than ready to accept whatever punishment was deemed appropriate for his actions. I think he was very troubled by whatever it was that caused him to commit the crimes he did, and even asked that his brain be examined after his death to see if the cause could be determined. And while he met a pretty horrible death himself I think he probably welcomed it.
It’s a tie they both get exactly ZERO…
(To the op: What’s rich got to do with anything?)
Oops, I forgot about the question asked in the OP. Yes, I definitely feel more sympathy for Dahmer than Martha Stewart. This isn’t to mean I think her crime was the greater, only that he seemed sorry and remorseful and in the grip of a compulsion he couldn’t control, whereas Martha knew full well what she was doing, and she has yet to own up to having done anything wrong.
Dahmer also exuded more warmth.
Where does Charles Manson fit in here? 35 years and counting and he never even killed anyone (or make a kllling with insider dealing).
I get a bit of schadenfreud out of Stewart’s conviction but have no real opinion on Dahmer as I was only around ten or so (I think) when he was arrested and didn’t pay much attention to his story, obviously.
So, Dahmer gets the nod only because of apathy.
Stewart. I don’t care much for her, I’m glad that she’s being punished for what she did, and I feel some smug satisfaction that it was her arrogant overconfidence that got her caught.
Dahmer, on the other hand, was a sick, sadistic monster who tortured and killed people for his own amusement. No sympathy whatsoever for his incarceration or death.
Personally, I’d like to see him fit in an Iron Maiden. While the case could be made that he’s nuts, I think a lot of it is an act. I think he’s just a misanthrope who’s taken it to the extreme.
I meant to add for Stewart:
…however, the crime she committed was motivated by the same everyday desires that just about everyone has, she was never a danger to others, and I wouldn’t fear for the safety of my family if she moved into my neighborhood after being released.
Neither gets sympathy, but Steward gets more spite. Damn rich bitch gettin’ over.
I have sympathy for the plight of Jeffrey Dahmer, because I am fairly positive that someone did something unspeakable to him as a small child which twisted his fragile mind. I also cannot understand why he was in the general population in prison; it seems to me that officials set him up to die, and that seems outrageously unfair.
As for Martha, I have a different kind of sympathy for her. Her punishment far outweighs her crime; the hit she took to her personal wealth as well as the wellbeing of her company is completely disproportionate to a $40k stock scam. And when I look at people like Ken Lay, walking around free while she’s been sent to the federal pen, I’ve got to wonder where justice resides.
In a parallel universe, the ideal punishment for both would involve Martha Stewart giving Jeffrey Dahmer an extensive series of hands-on instruction in the domestic arts: home decorating, cooking and baking, entertaining, and personal grooming.
Seriously, though, Dahmer was clearly nuts (even though he was found to be of sound enough mind to be criminally tried – meaning that he was aware of the law as he was breaking it – but that’s fodder for another debate), and I felt some pity for him on that basis.
Stewart, OTOH, was greedy, arrogant and disdainful of the law, dishonest, and conniving, and to date unrepentant, and she deserves everything she’s getting. That she’s richer than Croesus (or was, before the Imclone affair blew up in her face) matters in that she didn’t need the money.
Martha Stewart.
There was a point when she could have just said “I’m sorry” and gotten a slap on the wrist. She defied authority and got screwed.
But I digress.
To compare a wealthy business person breaking stock law to a sadistic serial killer is silly.
Bottom line, I might have sold stock I knew was going South, but I wouldn’t have eaten the stockholders.
Martha gets my sympathy. Her crime was motivated by fear, and she got screwed over where any man who did the same would have only received a slap on the wrist and much less media hysteria. I find it hard to feel sorry for murderers, regardless of the circumstances.
Is guess this thread is not a woosh?
But it is the most vulgar question I can remember on the SDMB.
Dahmer was serial killer and a cannibal. I have zero sympathy for him considering how many families he devastated by his crimes.
Martha gets my vote. She didn’t kill, torture or eat anybody, nobody lost their retirement fund due to what she did, and people are only suffering financially because of what the court chose to do. She was greedy, but not evil.
Dahmer never did anything in his life that made anyone else’s life better. Never created jobs, or inspired anyone’s creativity…heck, he probably couldn’t even make decent biscuits. All he did was destroy. No matter what his mental status, he had no right to kill. Sympathy for him is wasted.
I think everyone thinks they’re so cool for jumping on the Martha-bashing bandwagon. I’m no Martha Stewart fan, but it seems like her punishment does not fit her crime. She WAS greedy, she tried to play fast and loose with the law and got busted for it, and it seems like she didn’t have the best possible legal representation either. She deserved SOME kind of punishment, but her sentencing seems rather extreme (especially compared to similar white-collar criminals like the aforementioned Kenneth Lay).
Jeffrey Dahmer was a sick, sadistic, perverted, evil bastard, and frankly, he got off easy. I don’t see how anyone can say with a straight face that they empathize with a cannibalistic serial killer more than a greedy businesswoman who just got greedy and then got caught in a lie.
Well, Martha and Jeffrey are alike in some ways. For example, both blew a few a dinners when they were first getting started.
What a question. Obviously Dahmer’s crimes were much worse than Martha’s. Yet Dahmer suppoedly repented while in prison, and died there. If Dahmer is irredeemable, how am I reedeemable? My crimes were no worse, in spirit. If Jeff Dahmer’s repentance was genuine, and he is not in Heaven now, how can I hope to ever get there?
Martha, on the other hand, seems unrepentant. But really, how could I know what’s in her heart? We’re only shown what the media want to show us. Which has a tenuous relation with reality. God forgive them both, and me too.
Martha, because she is being punished for being a difficult and wealthy woman. Her crime was practically a parking ticket compared to Enron.
Jeffrey Dahmer may have been made that way by some sort of abuse in childhood, but I didn’t feel bad that he died in prison, not one bit.