the Scott Stein

I know all of the objections to the death penalty. I share some of them. It's a complicated issue. But if I could wave my magic wand and we all were granted certainty that we'd caught the right guy, could we agree that this monster doesn't need to be alive? At the least, can't we agree that whatever therapy he might undergo in the future, however much he might impress the psychologists, we don't ever let him out of prison? That is, if we're lucky enough to find him in the first place.

Two inmates are suing the state of Indiana for its ban on "sexually explicit letters and general-circulation publications." Both are serving time for murder. I don't know what the lawyers will say, and I know how important the First Amendment is, and maybe this is more complicated than it seems. But do we really want murderers allowed to look at porn in prison? If yes, aren't we giving 15-year-old boys incentive to start killing people?

Just kidding, of course. Kids won't start murdering in the hope of having access to porn in jail. They already have plenty of access to porn from the comfort of their own homes, with far less chance of anal rape.

Source: CNN

A crack-dealing 80-year-old was busted for exchanging drugs for sex with prostitutes. Now that's living the golden years to their fullest. It seems to me that there were satisfied customers all around. Anyway, he's been arrested and might go away for a year or more. So you can sleep sound tonight. America is safe. Oh, wait, there's a violent crime wave in the nation's capital.

Rocky Barton was executed today for killing his fourth wife. No one deserves to be murdered by their husband. Let's not blame the victim. Seriously. Let's not. But you only have to read to paragraph six to find out that "Barton had previously served an eight-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of his second wife." I assume this was known to wife number four. And she married him anyway. Now that's love.

Source: CNN

A headline today on CNN.com said: "Boy gets 26 years for murdering playmate."

When I see "boy" and especially "playmate," I would ordinarily guess that they're six years old. Maybe eight. I know they're older, because we don't give six-year-olds 26-year sentences. But maybe you guess that the "boy" is particularly young or the crime borderline in some way, because the phrasing of the headline, with "boy" and "playmate" together with "26 years," might suggest some miscarriage of justice, an overzealous prosecutor, perhaps. Then you read the story.

Evan Savoie was 12 when he murdered Craig Sorger, 13. His developmentally disabled victim "had been beaten and had 34 stab wounds." During the attack, "Sorger repeatedly cried out: 'Why are you doing this to me?' "

"Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young," Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen said as he imposed the maximum sentence.

Good luck with that.

Source: CNN