This happened last week, but I only heard about it over the weekend because the LA Times ran a feature about the family. The dad was a rock musician who had been active in the LA scene in the early 90’s.
I think this affected me more than most crime stories because the kids are so close in age to my own. And, frankly, because they remind me of the sort of folks my wife and I tend to hang out with: Middle-aged gen-X’s with funky backgrounds who have settled down to raise families.
From all accounts they sound like a really cool family. The Mom ran a toy store. The dad had just played a New Year’s gig the night before. The kids sound like they were bright and well-adjusted.
What sort of person slits the throats of a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old?
A neighbor dropped off the 9-year-old after a sleepover. Police think the men were already in the house but the mom wasn’t able to communicate the fact to the neighbor. It’s chilling.
Apparently they’ve caught the guys who did it. It seems to have been a random home invasion. They also seem to have killed a girl who was an accomplice in the first murder and her parents. It’s cases like these that keep me from being opposed to the death penalty. I hope that the perpetrators get a speedy and just trial and are consigned to well-deserved oblivion.
I’d heard about this since it happened in my hometown. Sick and sad.
I think what makes it hit home is that my brother and SIL bought one of our Christmas gifts at her store in Carytown, and I was planning to go buy a gnome figurine that she carried next time I’m in town.
It’s horrible. Lock the fuckers up and throw away the key.
Personally, I don’t give a FUCK what was going through their minds. The human race has no need for people who think it’s in any way a good idea to slit a nine-year-old girl’s throat.
I’m, for the most part, opposed to the death penalty- I mean, if it turns out to have been an incorrect sentencing (which has actually happened just recently, I understand), then there’s no undo button. Cases like this, though, make me want to pull the switch on Ol’ Sparky myself.
Sometimes I can’t believe the callousness of people who are against the death penalty. I am also of the opinion it’s a one-way street and should absolutely be used rarely and judiciously. I’d say more, but Lightnin’ made my points just as well as I could.
Just to be clear - I don’t care what was going on in their heads, either. All I care about is what was going on through the kids’ heads when they died, and through the parents’ heads.
You really can’t base support for the death penalty solely on the heinousness of the crimes; many objections to the death penalty are based on the fact that we can’t know for sure if the convicted person is actually guilty. Knowing that innocent people have been put to death, how can you make the claim that you hope those convicted are put to death without acknowledging that you had better hope they convict the right people in the first place.
Killing the people responsible for this will not bring back that family. And attempting to might lead to killing more innocents. You call those concerns callous?
Specious argument. JAILING the people responsible won’t bring back the family either. Would you then argue that it shouldn’t be done?
Punishing criminals is not about providing redress to the victims. It is about constructing a just society. Justice demands punishment for those who perpetrated this heinous crime. And if the evidence of guilt is overwhelming, then, liberal that I am, I’m perfectly happy for the punishment to be death.
Funny - seems to me that building a justice system modeled on vengeance requires callousness at the very least. Throw in the realities of the death penalty - the systematic problems in administering it in much of the United States make support for the death penalty barbaric.
Dumb bitch. I like having reasoned discussion with people who have different politics than me, but obviously it’s not possible with you. Where the fuck do you get off claiming that those of us who oppose the death penalty do it because we don’t care about the victims? Fuck off, you stupid piece of shit.
Innocent people die. If a few innocents have to die for the death penalty to exist, so be it. In no true “cause” do innocent people get a ‘bye’. Yeah, by agreeing with the more swift and thorough use of the death penalty, we are all at risk by something like 250,000 million to one odds it’ll be us that is wrongly accused and killed.
There you go having imaginary fights with people again. I thought we worked on that and got over that “hump”. Bad Cal.
Anyway, some of us don’t automatically worship at the humanstic alter and are open to pragmatic solutions of any type. The merits of those can be debated on their own without assuming every person is simply a stray puppy that has had a bad day.
Sure, the merits of different positions can be debated. And in fact they have been, plenty of times. But they can’t be debated very productively if one party decides that the other party only holds their views out of callousness. It’s completely ridiculous and offensive besides to claim that those of us who oppose the death penalty do so because we don’t care about crime victims.
How would you weigh the fact that many of the victim’s families would like to have the perpetrator executed to gain closure or a sense of justice? This is purely hypothetical. Would the assumed gain on that side weigh in on any opinion you have about the death penalty or does simply locking the crimial up for life end the discussion for you. There is potential utility for a criminal beyond the life in prison stage. The death penalty could potentially create positive or negative utility. That is where the debate lies.
I’m sure the killers had their reasons. I think we should get to know them, counsel them, try to understand what was in their hearts. They are, after all, human beings. They should be afforded every opportunity as those they have killed, nothing less.
And all that is irrelevant because it’s fallacious and offensive to claim that those of us who oppose the death penalty do so because we don’t care about victims of crime.
Apparently some dumbass cares more about what is going on in the monster’s head. The only reason I would support the abolition of the DP would be because of some innocent people die. Not because the rest of the world think it’s barbaric, and definately not because some pansy ass handwringer worries the sick fuck may have “issues”. I don’t care if he was molested as a child by his mother. He doesn’t deserve any more than he willingly gave others. And he sure as hell doesn’t deserve a roof over his head and three meals a day for the rest of his natural life to think about what he did wrong, courtesy of the taxpayer. Killing people by the state is justice is some cases.
The execution and the lengthy appeals process that goes along with it is also funded by the taxpayer. In most cases, it costs more to execute a man than it does to imprison him for life. The death penalty may be an effective deterrent, but it’s definitely not saving anyone any money.