The Struggle to Keep a Juvenile Killer in Prison

[Prrkitty]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317008,00.html

The state is Rhode Island. The suspects age is 13. The year is 1987. Total killed is 4 (within a 2 year period).

The process to keep him behind bars is still going on to this day.

The suspect says that the courts/laws/judicial system failed him. He says he's paid his dues for his initial crimes.

Yet no where in the article do I see any remorse from the suspect concerning his crimes. The article does talk about the suspects anger, frustration, etc concerning his situation. But still no remorse about anything.

Would he kill again? Everyone involved with the kid (as he was as a kid) and as the adult (as he is now)... says that he WOULD kill again.

Should he be allowed back into main stream society? My answer to that is... NO!

Does someone else have to die JUST so we (as a society) can justify keeping him in jail for the rest of his life? I don't think so.

Am I acting/reacting in fear of what *might* happen? HELL YES!!

In this situation... does the ends justify the means? (hope I said that right). I think it does.

[Lilith]

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[Aegix Drakan]

dude, I'm not into locking people up in the way they did, but...

That guy is a psycho. If the guy is able to nonchalantly talk about brutal murders the he commited...there is no freaking way he should be allowed to re-enter society.

:mad: If he had shown remorse of some kind, then maybe. But come on!

I hope this madman stays behind bars for the rest of his life.

[erm2003]

I really hate the juvenile system we have here. A person knows right from wrong well before the age of 13. He killed 4 people when he was between the ages of 13-15 and he should be serving full sentences for each of them. Two of them were also young girls of 10 and 8. There really is something wrong if he doesn't get more time. Someone else will get hurt or killed.

[copsgotguns]

he did the crime, he served the time. i dont think anyone should be kept in jail longer than their sentenced just because theyre "evil". if the guy is so mentally disturbed he should be in a psychiatric center or something. wouldnt keeping him in jail exasperate his murderous tendencies.

also im not a fan of making choices out of fear.

[rock_nog]

I agree he should be kept from society, but not jail. That's not fair, and that's not what he needs. Sounds mentally disturbed to me. Of course, the state of mental health treatment today is a joke, so likely he wouldn't get what he needs anyway.

He clearly can't comprehend right from wrong. Nobody who could would do what he did. I mean, sure, he may have known that crime = jail time if caught, but normal people don't operate like that.

[phattonez]

You can't legally keep him in prison if he's already served his sentence. The only thing that makes sense to me is to declare him a sociopath and put him in a mental institution.

[Jenny]

^ What Phattonez said.


I myself, hate the juvenile system, because I got probation once for someone ELSE's mistake. He blamed me, i got punished. wheres the evidence?!

England was better at that stuff IMO.

[phattonez]

Where's goKi right now to complain about justice?

[MottZilla]

Yeah if there's anything I hate hearing about, it's "twice convicted rapist/murders kills again oops" why do we let them out? I don't get it. You hear this all the time, especially in pedo/rape/assault cases (cause I guess it doesn't involve dying, which is bs). Is society begging for more ex-con gas-station clerks who MIGHT not rape/kill people at random? What. More death penalty imo.

Agreed. Someone should shoot him and throw him into a landfill or something. No one important will care or miss him. Fuck this mental institution idea. We have to pay for that shit. We should seriously execute more people when the evidence is there.

[Prrkitty]

And yet wasn't it New Jersey that just commuted all the sentences for people sitting on death row... to life in prison without parole?

I don't believe everyone should receive a death sentence for punishment. But I do believe that the death sentence should not be abolished.

[Lilith]

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[phattonez]

Imagine how less clogged our court system would be if we didn't have endless appeals for people on death row. Add that onto the fact that a life sentence is cheaper than the death penalty, and then there's always the chance that you execute an innocent person. Then there's the moral question of whether or not we should decide who should live and who should die.

I'm completely against the death penalty in this country.

[Breaker]

I'm completely against the death penalty in this country.


When a serial killer slices up your children or parents, you might not be.

[Jenny]

the death sentance is just an easy way out for the prisoner, IMO.

Think about it, they make horrible crimes, then die, and never have to face justice (or whatever) again.

[rock_nog]

Geez... How many more innocent people would be sent to death, if the death penalty didn't have the requirements it does? Personally, I think we already send far too many people to death row, but then I'm the sort of person who thinks that one is too many. But I don't know how prevalent my attitude in this day and age. Seems like more and more, people these days have no problem with collateral damage. Sure, a few innocents might be executed, but at least the killers are kept off the streets, is what you hear. Has the world gotten that bad, that we feel the need to execute innocent people to keep it safe?

[Jenny]

^ Probably has alot to do with the Media. eather way, it seems thats how the USA is, sadly.

[phattonez]

Look at what other countries have the death penalty. I don't like to use the popularity argument, but it is pretty embarrassing. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Death_Penalty_World_Map.png

Breaker, I understand your point of view, but I am not for the possibility of an innocent person being put to death just so that I can get my revenge. Economically and in terms of efficiency, life imprisonment makes more sense, not to mention morally.

[Aegix Drakan]

I'm also against the death penalty. We can never be 100% sure if a person is guilty, and even then, you don't see many rich guys on death row (if any). They can just hire a really good lawyer who will implant enough doubt to have them get a stay of execution. But some people can't afford that, and those are the people that get killed.

I just don't feel that we have a the moral right to decide who lives and dies.

Oh, and Breaker, if a guy murdered my friends of family, I'd wan tthe guy in jail for good. Killing him wouldn't bring back my loved ones. All it would do would give me this sense of revenge. because that's ll I tihnk the DP is. Revenge. That being said, I wouldn't mind having the chance to kick the murdered in the nads with skates/steel capped boots, but no, I wouldn't want him dead.


Also, another reason I'm so outspoken against it is that I've had a nightmare of two where I was killed like this for something I was innocent of. If you dreamt of your own death like this...you wouldn't like it much either.



To conclude, I'd like to quote a very wise man "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not me too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends."

[Breaker]

A death sentence these days is the equivalent of life in prison. They're given an unlimited amount of appeals, which is our system's way of helping those that are innocent, prove it. A lot of you have very naive ideas concerning the justice system. It's not perfect. Innocent people have and will be put in prison. That's because a perfect justice system doesn't exist. We can only hope to make it as fair as we possibly can and improve on it.

Craig Price isn't being treated unfairly. If he committed the same crimes just a year later, he would have been given life in prison. It was only because the court at the time didn't have the authority, thanks to bureaucracy, to prosecute him as an adult. He's obviously a dangerous unrehabilited serial killer and releasing him at the age of 21 would be a huge mistake. We don't need more dead bodies to realize that. Fortunately the state found other ways to keep him behind bars so that he doesn't hurt anybody else.

[Gerudo]

the death sentance is just an easy way out for the prisoner, IMO.

Think about it, they make horrible crimes, then die, and never have to face justice (or whatever) again. "Having to face justice" involves us taxpayers to pay for their incarceration. When I am forced to pay for Joe Schmo's jailing expenses because he decided Little Johnny didn't need to see age 13, that's where I have to say lethal injection. You're saying we might as well give a person free food, room and board for the rest of his life. Oh wait, we already do...


Economically and in terms of efficiency, life imprisonment makes more sense, not to mention morally.It's easier to incinerate dead bodies than try to find room in an overcrowded jail.

[phattonez]

It's cheaper for a taxpayer to put someone in prison for life because of all the appeals and everything associated with the death penalty.

Breaker, why do the innocent have to prove anything? And I'd rather have an innocent person in prison than in an unmarked grave.

[Gerudo]

It's only cheaper if you do it in the right state. An appeal is an appeal, the only real difference I can think of are court costs. We pay for most the shit anyways. You tell me I can't feel the way I do, when nearly 20% out of every fucking paycheck goes to the damn government to support these fucks (among other miscellaneous "taxes")?

Is it really cheaper? Hell NO. Meals, cloths, water, electricity, entertainment... for anywhere from 20 to 60 years?

Screw that.

[phattonez]

I guess you asked for it.

Study Concludes Death Penalty is Costly Policy
In its review of death penalty expenses, the State of Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases. The study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The costs of appeals were 29% of the total expense, and the incarceration and execution costs accounted for the remaining 22%. In comparison to non-death penalty cases, the following findings were revealed:

* The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases.
* The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).
* The appeal costs for death cases were 21 times greater.
* The costs of carrying out (i.e. incarceration and/or execution) a death sentence were about half the costs of carrying out a non-death sentence in a comparable case.
* Trials involving a death sentence averaged 34 days, including jury selection; non-death trials averaged about 9 days.

(Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections) Read DPIC's Summary of the Kansas Cost Report.

[Breaker]

Breaker, why do the innocent have to prove anything? And I'd rather have an innocent person in prison than in an unmarked grave.


...because they've already been to trial, lost, and sentenced to death or life in prison. The burden would then likely fall on them to prove their innocence. If you're heart is really crying out for innocents in prison, then there are plenty of groups you can join supporting the cause.

Let me know what it's like to look in the face of somebody that's been accused, charged, and convicted of murdering/raping women and children, and help him prove he's innocent. Btw.. most murderers and rapists and those generally in prison, claim their innocent.

Unfortunately the world isn't black and white, which is why a perfect justice system doesn't exist.

[rock_nog]

The sad thing is how often they do turn out to truly be innocent. I mean, my God... If it were me, I'd ask for the lethal injection right then and there, because I couldn't cope - to have to look the family members in the eye and not to be able to tell them that I'm not responsible for their pain and suffering... and what of my own friends and family? No, I couldn't live knowing in the back of their minds is the thought that maybe I really am some sick murderer.

Anyway, it's because our justice system is imperfect that we can't have punishments we can't undo. Protecting the innocent should always be our first priority, even at the risk of the guilty going unpunished. We simply cannot decide who lives and who dies. By analogy, a doctor must always work to save lives - he can't kill a patient, even if that patient's organs could be used to save five others.

[phattonez]

"Illinois resumed executions in 1977. Since then, 13 death row inmates in the state have been cleared of murder charges, compared to 12 who have been put to death.

Some of the 13 inmates were taken off death row after DNA evidence exonerated them; the cases of others collapsed after new trials were ordered by appellate courts."

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/01/31/illinois.executions.02/

Hmm, a lot of those guys on Death Row in Illinois really were innocent.