Laramie Project sequel: killer unrepentant years later

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• (March 13, 2007, 11:56:10 AM)

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Colesla

[Major]

Okay, I'm about as left-wing, knee-jerk liberal as anyone here, and this guy's attitude has me thinking about capital punishment for certain offenders.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090929/entertainment/us_laramie_project_mckinney

[007bistromath]

Why, exactly? There's a good reason and a bad reason for this.

A good reason is that he may be beyond rehabilitation. He seems to regret the murder, but only for rather superficial reasons. He is still full of hatred so intense that he believes Matthew Shepard should've died for it. Would he still be dangerous if he were released? That depends on whether the regret he does express is greater than his homophobia.

It should be noted however that there is being an asshole, and then there is this. I don't feel it's unreasonable to assume that somebody so bent that they'd do this is mentally ill in some way. Ultimately, that wouldn't stop me: if somebody is unrecoverable, I feel that killing them is more humane than confining them for the remainder of their natural life. That's not a popular opinion, though, and we as a society tend to go out of our way to avoid putting the needle in the insane. So, how you feel about that is important to think on.

The bad reason is that you feel what he did, why, and his lack of remorse are so monstrous and evil that he deserves to die. I think he does, mind you, but if that is the reason behind you reconsidering your position on capital punishment, it exposes some inconsistencies. What makes him so different from other murderers that you'd consider this an option when you didn't before? If it's his motive, then you're saying that it's okay to kill somebody who would usually live if they hate certain people. The concept of hate crime is already uncomfortably close to thoughtcrime. Would you really want to elevate that to a capital offense? If it's his lack of remorse, then it seems like you're kind of taking a step "backwards" from the common view of dealing with criminals. Remorse is something that, if it seems genuine and is accompanied with other kinds of rehabilitative expression and action, can get you out of prison. Shouldn't a lack of remorse just keep you there? If you're just thinking that maybe murder should be a capital offense, that's fine in and of itself, but it's important to figure out why you're reconsidering that position.

[NoxEquites]

Should a criminal have to be repentant? If they serve their time why should their opinion on the crime be relevant? I can kind of see the point of repentance if they are being offered an early parole but what a person claims to feel and what they actually feel are rather different for most of the populace.

The primary function of prison is punishment with rehabilitation a distant second. Once the individual has served their sentence their opinion is moot. If they are in for life they can have whatever vitriolic attitude they desire.

[Tamsin]

Yeah, but the focus used to be on rehabilitation. Thing is, the type of person who does this sort of thing already believes they are a victim of the system and they didn't really do wrong. All punishing does is make them angrier, give them more rage and feeds their martyr complex. Then, when they get out, only the fear of returning to prison keeps them in line. That, IMHO, is not nearly as effective a deterrent as making them repentant, making them want to behave better and actively avoid the thought patterns that made them break the law.

[Major]

The first step toward solving a problem is recognizing that it exists.  If, after ten years, McKinney refuses to admit that what he did was wrong, there is no way he's getting rehabilitated.  If he's not going to be rehabilitated, then he should die in prison.  There is no question here that the wrong man was convicted, so let him suffer the full penalty the law allows.

I don't believe in deterrence, because most people never believe anything bad will ever catch up to them.  The rule of Talion forgets that blood feuds forget who started what, so that George remembers that Osama hit him, and doesn't care why; eventually, everyone ends up blind and toothless.  Worse, if we look at legal penalties in the same light we look at paying the bill at a restaurant, who decides whether the steak is affordable or not?  Personally, I'm a tightwad about some things, but I'll splurge on others.

I am not going to go deeper in this post, because I know I tend toward tl;dr.  I leave the floor to the next speaker for now.

[Tamsin]

The thing is, Major, the prison system doesn't aim at rehabilitation. It aims at punishment. They are not the same thing. He's not been rehabilitated after ten years of punishment. That's not entirely surprising.

So what do you do with him, then? Releasing him turns a dangerous person loose on everyone else. If he had already served his time, keeping him imprisoned is not allowed.

I have never been against the death penalty. Sometimes someone is so broken that they can't be fixed, they are just a danger to everyone. Keeping them locked up is an expense. I just also feel that prisoners should be treated with rehabilitation as the goal: given access to things to better themselves, taught better, given psychiatric treatment or therapy. Not just locked up and punished for breaking rules. As that unrepentant killer stands now, he is only a burden and a danger to the rest of us. If he could be taught better, then we've gained a member of society back.

[Major]

Then the humane thing to do is to fix the prison system so that it is geared toward rehabilitating those who can be saved.  The problem remains what can be done about those who won't be saved. 

I am not a fan of "three strike" rules that don't give a person a chance to be rehabilitated, but at some point, we must recognize that recidivists have developed a pattern that must be broken.  I am also not a fan of capital punishment as it is so often applied:  to minority members and the poor, because they can't get silver-tongued lawyers to secure acquittal or sweetheart plea bargains.  If capital punishment is allowed to exist, however, surely it should be applied to an unrepentant murderer like McKinney before it is applied to a desperate kid who threw a rock at a cop and got in one "lucky" hit.

[entropos]

I am opposed to capital punishment. It's too expensive. In Texas, our bloodlust leads poorer counties into near bankruptcy. The only way to make it cheaper is to end the constant appeals. Which would lead to even more innocent men and women being executed.

I agree with fixing the prison systems. I think the the best way to do it is to end the War on Drugs. We could use the money wasted on useless interdiction, prosecution and incarceration to make our prisons better at identifying and helping those who want and can be helped while sequestering the nonredeemable.

[007bistromath]

Much as with abortion, I support the death penalty because there is no practical alternative at present or for the foreseeable future, although in this case the problem is society's moral turpitude rather than the limits of our scientific understanding. The best thing we can do right now is find some way of changing how it's funded.

[MEPS]

Sorry link did not work but I see there is a general conversation emerging and as a criminology student who loved her abolitionism class, I must weigh in.

Tasmin is correct that the Prison system is solely about punishment. And punishment does not deters. If the death penalty especially deterred people, the USA would have no murders. The death penalty as a deterrent argument assumes people are rational and calculating when they commit murder. The the prison system has never ever been about rehabilitation. The post-war period to about 1978 is referred to as the rehabilitative period of the prison industrial complex.  However, the system was no different than it is today. I am not some anti-capitalist person, but criminal justice system is intertwined with capitalist ideology. In this rehab period day parole emerged and so forth. Efforts were made to get the prisoner reintegrated with the community. And to do what? GO make money and be a good little morally reformed workers. Focus was on vocational training. However, evaluations of these reintegration and rehab programs determined they did nothing to prepare the prisoners for life on the outside and did nothing to respond to their individual unique needs.

As entropos said, the War on Drugs needs to end. The War of Drugs is deliberately broad based so as to expand state control and ridiculous drug laws (granted my position on drug laws is meh. I certainly do not believe in the type of punishments in the USA which are ridiculous). Oh and guess who the war on drugs targets? The poor and marginalized minorities.

As for death penalty. The death penalty is abhorrent practice. We are human beings. We are not perfect. Our justice system is not perfect and there is no way it ever will be. The instant you sentence 1 innocent person to death, society becomes murders. But besides that argument how about looking at the makeup of those who are on death row in the USA? The mentally ill, the poor, and visible minorities. You realize that in the USA you are not allowed to execute someone who is mentally ill at the time of execution or unhealthy at execution, but you are allowed to kill someone who's mentally illness contributed to their crime. Explain the rationality of that. And it shocks me that people think the death penalty is cheap. It takes years and years of appeals before someone is executed. People are on death row today who have been there for 10+ years. Oh and on top of that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. The lethal injection is in no ways painless.

I know it is just a TV show but there is a very powerful episode of Boston Legal that my hubby does not allow me to watch anymore because I get so pissed off watching it. It is the last episode of the first season called "Death Be Not Proud". About the death penalty in Texas.

Anyways, I know people will not agree with me. Part of it is my perspective as a criminologist who believes in hardcore reform of the CJS and as a Canadian where we do not have the death penalty.