Well, this is really a form of catharsis more than anything. So we have a 17 year-old genetic mistake rape and kill a 99 year-old woman. That’s right. No typo. 99 years old.
Now here is the question. Are there some crimes where our justice system cannot handle properly? I mean, after the trial (and assuming a guilty verdict), what form will “justice” take? A needle in the arm? A life sentence. Not adequate. And not close.
I propose a nice old-fashioned stoning. I’ll throw the first rock. And bring extras. Any other ideas. I kinda like what Leon Uris had in The Haj, I think it was. Bend the guy over a table, stick a fat pipe up his ass into his bowels, then send up some frenzied, starving rats, which will panic and attempt to eat their way out, and plug up the pipe. Maybe send in a fine tube with oxygen so the little instruments of justice can do their work. And I wold telivise his face the entire time. With a gallery of people—me, freinds of the victim—laughing at him the whole time.
Any other ideas?
So, two questions. Should we be able to step outside the normal "justice sytem from time to time? And what would be a fitting punishment death for people who do thingss like rape and kill 99 year-old women?
Prosecution and punishment in accordance with the law.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s a horrific crime. But it isn’t something that the justice system isn’t equipped to deal with. Arrest him, try him, and imprison him, like you would any other rapist. But your proposed “solutions” aren’t much different from his actions.
Life is too good for him. If he is convicted I hope he’s executed. My 96-year-old grandmother lives about 45 minutes away from there and I don’t want her taxes supporting the little bastard.
I simply cannot imagine the mindset of a person who can cold-bloodedly kill another person. I am glad my imagination isn’t that good.
I understand respect for the elderly, but do you really think that a 26-year old woman would be any happier about being raped and murdered? Do you think she would experience less pain and fear? Do you think her family would mourn her any less?
If you want to change the punishment for rape or murder, call your congressman*. But the age/ethnicity/gender/attractiveness/hair color of the victim shouldn’t be the issue - they all hurt just as much**.
*But don’t try to get what you proposed written into law - that’s just barbaric.
**I’m going to make an exception for rape of children and developmentally disabled individuals, who IMHO do hurt more because it’s harder for them to heal and recover.
Probably, but a straightforward, clear cut example of rape and murder isn’t one of them. The justice system has problems with grey areas and with it’s own occasional corruption and prejudices; seldom with clear cut one sided evil.
And if it isn’t savage enough for you, that’s not the justice system’s problem, but yours.
*In about five minutes then walked a man,
holding the verdict in his right hand
The verdict read in the first degree,
I shouted Lordy Lordy please have mercy on me
The judge he smiled when he picked up his pen,
Ninety-nine years in the San Quentin pen.
Ninety-nine years underneath that ground*
I know it sounds ironic - but even though I am for the death penalty I don’t think I could pull the lever (or whatever) unless the victim was someone I knew. I know that is whimping out, but it’s just how I feel. I honestly don’t know if I would be able to do it.
A friend of mine who is very anti-death penalty used that as a argument - if you couldn’t pull the lever yourself, you shouldn’t support the death penalty.
Having said that, I am a hell of a lot more likely to be able to pull the lever on the execution of a rapist/murderer than I am to kill a 99-year-old woman.
I guess this situation bothers me - hits closer to home - because up until a year or so ago my grandmother lived by herself (by choice) and it so easily could have been her.
Most people I know of who believe in capital punishment don’t consider an execution to be cold-blooded murder. So there is no conflict inherent between those two statements.
I think the retaliation you propose would do more damage to the social fabric that the original crime. Setting that aside, I think you raise a valid question in asking whether there are some crimes where the justice system is inadequate to address our outrage. The answer, though, may be simply that the justice system is not there to fully address our outrage. It is there to provide a socially-approved alternative to personal revenge and retaliation.
Dude, you make it sound as though you view a horrific and viciously brutal crime primarily as an excuse for fantasizing about the barbaric torture of criminals (not to mention animal abuse) for the vindictive amusement of spectators.
Maybe there are some people who can be trusted to do so in certain circumstances. Based on your OP, however, I don’t think I want anyone like you to have anything whatsoever to do with even operating the normal justice system, much less deciding when and in what appallingly savage ways we should “step outside” it.
Well, catharsis, mainly. And I mean even just talking about it. But from a practical point of view, if we could make an example of this person, use his life to make a point to what will happen to you of you step so far out of bounds odf what we, as a society, deem acceptable—or in the case of rape and murder, fathomable—we’d actually be doing him a favor. Putting his life to some good.
For death, yes, actually. If a life is taken at in one’s last years it is differetn than one that is taken when they are a child , adolescent or youg adulet. They are all sad, yes, bu one is easier to accept, as far as the death, than the other. IMO anyway.
And as much as I depise rapists—I’ve advocated on these boards the slicing off of the dick of any viloent rapist—someone who rapes a woman in her 90s has committed two grotesque acts. One, is rapiing anyone. Period. The other is preying on someone who is frail and cannot defend herself,or possibly survive the attack. I feel the same toward those who rape children, or the diabled. The baseline crime—rape—is compounded considerably. Again, IMO.
Hey, Uris thought that up (or was he reprting it?), not me. I’m just exploring putting his imagination to use in the real world. And as far as the animals, how is it abuse? I’m giving them oxygen, and they’ll be heating till their hearts’ content until they reach daylight.
Well this might be as good a time any to reveal part of my real-life persona: I’m a judge.
