This past week Israel was overcome with one of the most terrible murders the country has known. You can read about it here and here .
Here is the case a person, who for a month plans to kill his own daughter to hurt his wife, drowns his 2 year old in a bathtub and buries her in a forest, then lies about it to the entire country, causing thousands of volunteers to search for his daugher, then expressing no real anguish when he was caught.
One of the most disturbing things about this case is that in his interragation he said that his wife hurt him, he wanted to hurt her as much as possible, and that now, he “won”.
I think it is important to deny him this “victory”, but I can’t figure out how. He considered suicide, so I’m not sure killing him would work. What could possibly make him realize that he didn’t win? Obviously the murder of a child is certainly the greatest way to hurt a parent, and he succeeded in that.
When it comes to terror attacks, the terrorist can be denied his victory if the people don’t act afraid, and keep on living. But how can this apply here?
Susan Smith did pretty much the same thing. The only thing American society could think of to do with her was lock her away permanently and forget about her.
The thought that he won is in his own deluded mind; to us, he didn’t win: he is in a cell. If we don’t accept his views on reality, why should we accept his views on winning?
I know this isn’t what justice is about - but on an emotional level I know that simply being in a cell doesn’t mean he didn’t win. He didn’t say I want to hurt my wife as long as I don’t have to go to jail. I want him to sit in jail, for the rest of his life, thinking that he lost.
He did win, as far as he’s concerned. He hurt his wife terribly, and denying it is avoiding the truth. I think what’s bothering you is that he doesn’t care about anything else, thus leaving no apparent lever with which to punish him.
Sometimes, Curwin, there really are monsters, and all you can do is remove them. There’s nothing anyone can do to make him regret what he’s done and cause him the anguish you want him to feel.
Why do you think it’s important? Just that you don’t like the idea of his “thinking that he won” is not satisfying to me. We’ve got to lock him away for the rest of his life, obviously, but why go out of our way to bring more misery into the world?
I agree with everyone else. The point of sentencing is giving justice to the victims, and this guy will be suffering locked in jail, if he think he “won” or not.
As I pointed out, I understand my that my concern here is not for justice. I think I just feel, as most Israelis do after following this case so closely, an emotional need for some closure. Not justice. I don’t even want this guy to “suffer” in the sense of torture or whatever. I just don’t want him feeling that he’s won, or that some other guy in the same position might consider the same action because he could also win. I understand there might not be a possible solution to this, but I thought perhaps I was overlooking some way of denying him his victory.
—I thought perhaps I was overlooking some way of denying him his victory.—
But the question is, why would you want to? Why care?
—I just don’t want him feeling that he’s won, or that some other guy in the same position might consider the same action because he could also win.—
You mean you want to lie to people and convince them that it’s not possible to feel powerful and enjoy hurting others, when, by all accounts here, it is quite possible?
I think your efforts would be better spent on convincing people that it’s wrong to hurt others, and trying to prevent them from doing so.