Two second-grade girls stabbed and killed, way too close to home....

[lee]

Let’s not condemn someone who took out a chainsaw wielding maniac because he managed not to kill the maniac. Some maniacs are redeemable and we are supposed to have courts to pass judgment, due process and all that.

[smiling_bandit]

I am an opponent of the death penalty, but cases like these make it difficult to stick to that position.

The worst thing about opposing the death penalty is the category of people I have to protect. Gah, it makes me sick. :mad:

[Tuckerfan]

@lee

Let’s not condemn someone who took out a chainsaw wielding maniac because he managed not to kill the maniac. Some maniacs are redeemable and we are supposed to have courts to pass judgment, due process and all that.

I dunno, if I whallop a chainsaw weilding maniac, I’m gonna make sure that he’s dead. I mean, I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that some times they just lay there, waiting for you to turn your back, before springing back to life.

[Frostillicus]

@Kolak of Twilo

So Mr. Shithead was in prison for chasing his girlfriend and others through the trailerpark (yes, trailerpark) with a chainsaw (yes, in Texas) and was stopped when one of the neighbors hit him in the back of the head with a shovel. So then when the fuckwad gets out, he moves to Illinois to live with girlfriend and daughter.

According to today’s Trib, the girlfriend specifically invited him to come up to Zion and live with them after he was released from prison. Why would she do this? Get ready… she loves him.

[Frank]

@Kolak of Twilo

And, I’m just waiting for his lawyer to try an insanity plea that rests on that blow to the head with the shovel.

There is correlation between severe brain injury and increased levels of violence. I must admit, running after your neighbors with a chain saw is one hell of a baseline. Until medicine figures out how to physically repair the brain, there’s not much we can do but lock them up.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@lee

The death penalty in Illinois is under a moritorium because it was found that we were convicting people of crimes they did not commit and then sentencing them to death…There is not really that question in this case, he confessed.

Not that it happens today, but forced “confessions” were at the heart of the Illonois scandal.

An investigator for the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards concluded that Police Commander Jon Burge and his detectives engaged in “methodical” and “systematic” torture. Allegations of misconduct by Burge and his detectives include punching suspects, putting guns to their heads, shocking them and putting plastic bags over their heads to coerce confessions. Ten men “investigated” by Burge and his detectives now sit on death row. Allegations about Burge and his detectives have been around for years, but defendants’ allegations were not readily accepted. Now the police department has acknowledged the problem and Burge has been fired. I have yet to hear of concerns about a case because of defense counsel torturing witnesses.