So, Steven Hayes was convicted today on 16 out of 17 counts against him. He had been willing to plead guilty of all the crimes he was charged with, but because they were capital crimes, eligible for the death penalty, the state can't/won't let him plead guilty.
So, instead, we have this colossal waste of time, energy, and money of a trial. By the way, if the verdict wasn't a foregone conclusion for you, you really had to be under a rock, or one hell of a bleeding heart liberal. I feel badly for Dr Petit, but seriously? The trial was a farce.
What really gets me, though, is the rabid fervor for death that the public has. I'm on the fence about the death penalty - on the one hand, it's a hell of a deterrent, at least for the guy who dies, and if you're absolutely certain you've got the right guy, it could be the right thing. On the other hand, there have been cases where the death penalty has been carried out, and we find out later the guy didn't actually do the crime. The evidence was just stacked against him.
As far as Steven Hayes is concerned, I don't think we should kill him. He wants to die. Why give him what he wants? If there is any chance at all he'll obtain peace upon death, I want to deny it to him. I want him to have the same "mercy" he gave that family. Which is to say, none at all. Give him a small room, lights on constantly, no reading material, no tv, no human interaction. Let him be tortured by wanting to die, yet not being able to achieve that. If he tries to starve himself, hook him up and force feed him.
Just don't give him what he wants.
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