"Only death row" can stop him. Should we or shouldn't we?

I’m opposed to the death penalty with the possible exception of killing a fellow inmate or guard. However, because he wants so badly to be executed, I would favor sentencing him to solitary confinement for the rest of his life. I don’t think he should be rewarded (getting what he wants) for killing his fellow prisoner.

I’m torn on this because it is in a sense rewarding bad behavior. At the same time, he killed his cell mate and has already state he will kill someone else if he doesn’t get death row. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like knowing you will spend the rest of your life in prison. I imagine he isn’t the first guy that decided he’d rather be put to death then spend the rest of his years as a prisoner. I’m glad I’m not the one that has to make that decision.

Solitary confinement for life is probably unconstitutional, as it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Hollywood crime revenge film solution: Put him in the same prison block as a bunch of people we know are guilty of horrible crimes but can’t prove it. ;-P JK, but, well…

Zaku. We don’t, thank goodness, imprison people because we suspect they are guilty. But it is an interesting plot…perhaps it could be cast in a dictatorship.

dpworkin. That’s too bad because it leaves us with the original dilemma.

I would lock him in a cell all by himself, I’d put the most obnoxious prisoners in the cells near him. I would provide them with kazoos, and any other obnoxious item I could think of and I’d let them have at him for a few years. He wouldn’t get a chance to kill again he would live like till the cows came home. He wants to die he should hang himself or bash his brains out on the walls. He owes a debt, the payment due is life in prison and he should be forced to pay it.

Silhouette- I think you may have the solution. But he must be carefully observed so that he can’t kill himself. I know that’s easier said than done.

@ItsAHabit I wouldn’t be opposed to him taking his own life but he is a coward or he would have already done it.

At what point do these solutions become torture and is that ok?

@Iclamae Once he starts crying if he gets the right legal team.

I second @ItsAHabit on this one. Good call.

@dpworkin Federal Supermax prisons include huge blocks of cells specifically made for permanent solitary confinement. It is assigned not as a punishment in the same way it was when solitary was a dank, tiny cell in the bowels of the prison. It is for either protective custody of someone who would be killed if let into the general population, or for confinement of guys like this and terrorists, who would either threaten or recruit from the general population.

I think this guy isn’t doing anything other than seeking a private room where no one can sing “Dixie” in the dead of night.

He knows the score and how to work the system.

Due to the complex and time-consuming appeals procedure that must be followed in the United States, before an execution can be carried out, prisoners may wait years before execution; nearly a quarter of deaths on death row in the U.S. are in fact due to natural causes.

If you are going to spend your life in prison it may as well be in your own, private, accommodations.

@Silhouette

Oh kazoos are a little tame dontcha think?

How about Vuvuzelas instead?

:D

The death penalty is immoral and never warranted, but I can understand his situation and may seek the death penalty myself if I was given life in, say, an Indonesian prison.

In this case, the inmate should be given counselling, and only be allowed out of his single bed cell in the dead of night when all the other inmates are in their rooms until he is deemed safe for human interaction.

@ETpro Cases are making their way through the system now about those Supermax cells, because isolation in human beings is known to create intractable mental illness.

@dpworkin Too late for this guy, his cheese slid off his cracker quite sometime ago, 1983 if not sooner.

@ItsAHabit In a dictatorship, frequently they just lock up and/or kill people they suspect of anything they sufficiently dislike or fear.

Another idea is just restrain him in a way that he could never hurt anyone.

I also feel that if someone wants to die, and there’s no great reason to do otherwise, just euthanize them.

Somebody warm up that firing squad. if this man stated he will kill again, then the state is not doing its part to protect the public.

I am in favor of the death penalty in the most extreme circumstances and I think this applies. I don’t think this decision should be made on whether or not he wants to be put to death but whether or not putting him to death would prevent him from killing people, whether they are inmates or not.

Yes, I do think this man should be put to death.