# Malvo Guilty **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 18, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854 "2003-12-18T21:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/21 "2003-12-19T07:33:13Z")
Hey, you’re a bit premature on the death penalty arguments. He hasn’t even been sentenced yet; that doesn’t start until morning. The jury’s verdict only makes him _eligible_ for the death penalty. Personally, I find that the letters he wrote to a fellow inmate while in prison went far to dismantle his defense that he didn’t know what he was doing. Seems clear to me that he enjoys putting on a false face in order to manipulate things to his advantage, and maybe he fooled his public defenders, but the jury didn’t buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/22 "2003-12-19T13:07:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\* Putting him and Muhammed in prison forever is less likely to make them into martyrs then putting them to death. And I make no secret, potential martyrdom or not, of my opposition to the death penalty under any circumstances. \*\* Well, your position is indeed well known, but must you trot out every argument against the death penalty no matter their applicability to the present case? Martyrs??? You seriously believe putting these two to death will create martyrs? They’re not Hussein or Bin Laden for fuck’s sake. Hey, while I am not as staunch a hater of the death penalty as you, I do agree, in general, with you. But when you make leaps of logic like this, it makes it hard to take you seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/23 "2003-12-19T16:19:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, your position is indeed well known, but must you trot out every argument against the death penalty no matter their applicability to the present case? I wasn’t particularly “trotting out” anything. > [@](#): > > You seriously believe putting these two to death will create martyrs? I have no idea. My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with whether or not either of these two people, when executed, will be viewed as martyrs. It is I think fairly well established that dead people are more likely to become martyrs than live ones. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/24 "2003-12-19T16:54:29Z")
Otto, for Mohammed and Malvo to become martyrs, they had to have died for a cause. AFAIK, thrill-killing doesn’t have a political agenda. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/25 "2003-12-19T17:20:24Z")
Yes, vunderbob, but they will be **less likely** to become martyrs to some freaky, unloved, ideologue who is looking for a role model if they rot in prison-rather than are executed. Just as Otto said, martyrdom aside, it doesn’t make execution an OK thing, IMO. Sam ---
**Author:** ![Flang\_Dang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e4f/32.png) [@Flang\_Dang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flang_Dang)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/26 "2003-12-19T18:20:27Z")
Oh man, GaWd. So they will become martyrs to your “freaky, unloved ideologue” if they are dead? But in your view could never become so by corresponding to the living Muhammed and Malvo while they are in prison? What’s it like living in that fantasy-land? Charles Manson has a fan club of fuckheads writing to him, as well as just about any high-profile killer in prison does. If ANYONE ever becomes a follower of these losers, it would be through hearing their diatribes from prison and seeing them as self-styled “prophets”. No one “rots” in prison in this country. Believe how you want about the death penalty, but don’t try to fly that goofy logic that they are martyrs if dead and never heard from again if in prison. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/27 "2003-12-19T18:24:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GaWd \* > \*\*Yes, vunderbob, but they will be **less likely** to become martyrs to some freaky, unloved, ideologue who is looking for a role model if they rot in prison-rather than are executed. Just as Otto said, martyrdom aside, it doesn’t make execution an OK thing, IMO. > > Sam \*\* Yeah, like the nutjob sniper in Columbus who waited until the death sentence to begin his shootings. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Angel\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_Heart)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/28 "2003-12-19T19:36:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pizzabrat \* > \*\*Well, then either there’s an age line or there’s not. Should a six-year-old be put to death for killing someone his uncle told him to kill? If not, then what should the age line be? \*\* IIRC, a child under 7 cannot be charged with a crime and a child between 7 and 12 can only be charged as a juvenile. I think this came up about 3 years ago when a first-grader brought a gun to school and shot some girl (he wasn’t charged because they determined it was an accident) ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/29 "2003-12-19T19:40:37Z")
From what I’ve read Malvo was pretty much a thrown away kid who got picked up by the worst adult around. I’m thoroughly confused and ambivalent about legal insanity defenses which–right or wrong–leads me to prefer no one be given a death sentence. Killing somone to express societal outrage about killing seems too weird to wrap my mind around. That said, I have absolutely no problem with Malvo being sent away for life. The kid never caught an even break but he didn’t have to slaughter strangers for money either. I’m pretty sure he knew it was wrong, no matter what his fake daddy said. Fair or not, his actions were flat stone sociopathic and I haven’t seen the slightest reason to assume he’s changed his mind. Don’t kill him, but don’t let him out among people again either. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854/30 "2003-12-19T19:44:56Z")
Yet again… The martyr thing aside(as I don’t think it should be focused on too much as it’s not important), the death penalty should be avoided at all costs. Sorry if I can’t justify murder for murder, sanctioned by the government… Sam [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/malvo-guilty/219854.md?page=1)