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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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…