I wonder if he was hard to pick out in the lineup.

Okay, I have to admit you made me snicker with that one. :)

Cold blooded, Kevin. But funny, I can't lie.

I giggled a little at that comment too. I am going to hell :((

If he is not executed, then what will be his next murder or spree thereof.

What options does society have to protect itself?

He is not getting out of jail. Why would you think he would be?

Hard to pick out in the line-up? It's common to fill out a line-up with police officers who at least loosely resemble the suspect, well...I'm guessing some body's feeling were a little hurt. As to executing someone severely mentally ill...we kill people who just disagree with us (usually severely disagree) or people who happen to be standing too close to someone we really want to waste...it isn't a difficult stretch to waste someone who murdered two innocents who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe it's a "cosmic" equivalent, maybe this schmuck is cosmically in the wrong place at the wrong time and needs to advance to another plane of existence. Personally, it would be a tough call, but then we can kill people for wearing the other uniform so I'm torn between callous revenge and tough luck.

You guys are more insane than the criminal. You are saying put him down like a dog because you think this makes sense? The supreme court already ruled on this issue - you can not kill insane people - and that includes the lot of you in whose name this little shindig is being conducted because if you do it then you are all killers and complicit in the crime - and to boot you are all insane for thinking it is a good idea too.

You know in Nazi Germany they practiced euthanasia of mental defectives. Do you guys live in America in 2012 or in Nazi Germany in 1943? Do you even care of how you look in front of the entire world?

You don't have any justice system but your lust for revenge and your broken legal system can kill people in ways that are not that different than the Nazi's did. Yes but you did create lynch mobs and frontier "justice" so this is - the modern equivalent.

Responding to violence with violence is not exactly noble.

gas him!shoot him, hang em or whatever, this piece of work is wasting our air and money!

What options does society have to protect itself?

How about lockint them up for life, preferably in a hospita for the crimanally insane where the staff is trained to deal with such people?

Of course it works both ways. If we really have the brain science today to easily identify people who can never be cured or rehabilitated, perhaps all violent criminals should be so tested. That way, we could lock them up BEFORE they kill. Usually this type of murderer has been arrested for some lesser crime before.

Murder, homicide, the killing of human by human is expressly forbidden within almost all human groups. If more than one human participates in the killing, they are also murderers as we see here. If I walk up to Mr. Turner and inject a 9 mm projectile into his heart, I will be tried as a murderer, and rightly so. If I participate in the homicide of Mr. Turner as part of our group, I am still a murderer. We are all murderers, which makes our judgement of Mr. Turner a complete hypocrisy. We cannot hope to rid ourselves of murder if we allow a small group of hypocrites to make us all murderers, whether of our own or of others outside of our group. As long as we insist on the primitive rule of murder for murder, we will have bloodshed and violent death. A state that refuses to murder is constituted of people who refuse to murder and murder becomes a mental illness unto itself including the inclination by demonstration to murder. We will separate those people from us, if we do not discover that the 'inclination' is universal. This is what our form of incarceration is for, separation. Alas, only separation. But, for a murderer, it would be all that is needed. Making all of the rest of us into murderers as well serves only an evil purpose and makes murder a 'rational' choice in our group.

He earned his spot in the dirt pile. Give him his prize. His cell already has a new tenant awaiting his exit. And yes, he is kinda self inflicted stupid looking.........

Kevin C, nice job. :) Cheers! Hilarious...........

branxoz, et.al., lighten up!! That was a brilliant one-liner for Kevin there.

Of course we shouldn't KILL him. Sounds to me as if his every day on this planet has been hell; he is mentally ill.

Of course, we shouldn't KILL people who are sane, either.

State-sanctioned killing is simply wrong.

What good is he doing anyone just hanging around? What's the purpose of living if you just ARE?

Put him down like the monster he is. Mentally ill or not, he's a threat to everyone and everything around him. FFS, he tried to kill himself twice. Just do it for him

We put down bad dogs that kill people. Why not put down people that kill others?

Sick man but if he is in no way able to get out of jail, maybe give him life, he'll probably kill himself anyway !

People escape from prisons and hospitals, even the most secure ones. Some years back a murderer escaped from an Arizona secure prison and killed several people while on the loose, eleven if I remember right. All of you who are against the death penalty, I ask you this: If this man or any murderer gets loose and kills more people are you willing to accept your part and be penalized for being accessory before the fact?

Crosby, You may not want to hear this, but pure naked violence has settled more issues throughout history than any other method. Remember Chamberlain's deal with Hitler; look how well that worked out. Or try to remember what it took to put some sense into 1940s Japan. The human race is violent by nature. If you believe in God than you can blame him because this is how we were made to be. If you believe in Darwinism than nature made us this way. Some people just need to die. Society and the world in general are and would be better off without them. How would you feel if it was your family member that murdered?

Big deal, you have to be screwed up in the head to commit most of the crimes condemned criminals are guilty of anyway. That doesn't change the fact that they have committed egregious acts of violence against other people. We need to limit the appeals process to 10 years to save time and money, and get rid of these scumbags once and for all.

ratranger127 I fully agree with, "How would you feel if it was your family member that murdered?" If any of you were a family member of one of those he murdered how would you like it if you read that people felt he shouldn't be punished. Everyone that has ever murdered someone in cold blood obviously has a mental illness, but it wasn't brought up before?! This man wants to die, who knows maybe since he failed killing himself he decided to give the state a try! Mentally ill or not he doesn't want help, let those family members get peace knowing this man is gone and not going to hurt anyone ever again.

I guess not executing him is his punishment. He apparently has tried to kill himself more than once and failed, so instead of executing him, keep him alive as a form of punishment. However, even in prison, people are known to commit suicide.

I say put him down before he takes another life inside or outside of the prison system.

We keep getting it backwards; it's..."Guilty by reason of insanity."

First of all cold blooded killers are mentally insane to begin with! Secondly, I admit to being a killer I served in the Army for 10 years. So in some of you people's eyes I am a murderer and should be tried too! Did the innocents that this man killed, get the chance to claim mental illness for their lives? Screw you "do gooders". You choose to put down those that want justice, in favor of a killer.........hello, you are the insane ones. Once you kill in cold blood you have no rights....excuse me, should not have any rights......period. Yet it's because of bleeding hearts like some of you they may be in a cage, but they have more rights than law abiding citizens. I serouisly wonder if a family member of yours was brutally murdered would you be so quick to holler about a murderers right. We wonder why crime increases, my gosh wake up people.

I would love to see accountability and responsibility in the court and justice system. The Supreme court says we can't put insane people to sleep. So I guess no one gets a vote on that one. And who's going to support these people? And is that support free? And if it isn't, if it costs more than a Princeton education, where could such money be better spent?

I think it's noble to protect and help the handicapped but this is a kind of tokenism that makes no sense, gives no justice to the victims families and actually costs more than we should ever pay. Let the bleeding hearted sympathizers take a payroll deduction to foot the bill for this guy if they feel so strongly about it. How about that, lawyers and sympathizers? We ALL have to pay because YOU feel some kind of irrelevant, misguided sympathy for a stranger with a mental condition?

It is my profound hope that someone really evil and smart uses these kinds of people to do their bidding. Like hiring the handicapped and 13 year olds as hit men. If there's no penalty against these people for murder and you need it done to support your cause, more power to you.

Crazy or not. The man has proven that he is a danger to society. Don't execute him as punishment if he is insane then--execute him to protect the rest of us from him. His entire life sounds sad and tragic but that does not negate the fact that he has murdered two people and has therefore proven that he is dangerous. Keeping him alive is like keeping a rabid dog. Fry him.

He does not belong on this planet, sick or not send him back to the factory, if it was me Id say the same thing. execute him he does not want to be here. that's the humane thing to do. Just end the misery.

I do not support the idea of legally sanctioned murder (death penalty), even in this case. I do not think this man should ever be allowed to walk the streets a free man, because he has proven he is a danger to himself and the rest of us.

And to hell with the Lawyers just making money at society's expense!

The story should read "To crazy to let live".

TNTTony--First, you are using a logical fallacy when you attempt to characterize everyone who disagrees with you as thinking that you should be tried for having been in the military (no, actually, I doubt that most people who are liberals think that--I don't), and secondly, you use slur words such as "do gooder" and "insane" and "bleeding heart." Thirdly, it is already the case that people who are mentally ill (or suffering from a mental illness at the time of the crime) ought to have that taken into consideration and should not get the death penalty. Fourth--violent crime is down, way down. The number of murders is half what it used to be about 40 years ago.

If the sum total of your argument is projecting ridiculous points on your opponent, using slur words, and misrepresenting the facts . . . you don't have much of an argument--do you?

Yes, clearly, this man is guilty. Yet, many other people are equally guilty of murdering other people, and they get out of jail in just a few years. For example, Joseph Jesk--a veteran of the war in Afghanistan--shot his wife in cold blood (they had been having a minor argument--it's not as though he had caught her in an adulterous affair or that she was threatening him with a weapon). Since he was able to get good representation and is not completely crazy, he decided to plead guilty in return for a reduced charge and got a sentence of only 17 years. He will probably wind up serving around 7 years, total. Apparently, someone took into consideration the fact that he was a veteran who had been acting oddly and probably was suffering some sort of PTSD which was in part responsible for his behavior.

That was an easy example to find--it is the case that if a person is not mentally stable at the time of the crime, that the person should not be put to death. I am not sure if enough was done during the trial to show that the man was mentally ill (notice that the prosecutor is emphatically defending the idea that it was--because if it wasn't, the man shouldn't be executed). The question, now, is whether this person can be put to death if it is shown that he now is mentally ill and/or that he probably was at the time of his crime.

This man should have been properly represented--and, if he was mentally ill (and he appears to be pretty much off his rocker), that should have been taken into consideration. I don't know whether the Supreme Court will decide that if it is proven that the man is now mentally ill and had a history of such illness, that this would constitute enough of an error that the man should not be executed--it will not void the guilty verdict and will not result in this man going free.

If you want to project silly situations--OMG, he might escape--let's remember that even murderers like Jesk, after they get out of prison, reoffend at an extremely low rate. There isn't a high risk of this man escaping (he doesn't seem bright enough to do it, frankly), and there is no reason why he couldn't kill again if he were in prison, and he hasn't. Basically, your argument just doesn't have any weight to it.

If a man like Jesk, who does not seem to have had a condition anything close to that of this convict, gets to have his sentence reduced all the way to second-degree murder and get released in 17 years--then it seems fine that this man is spared the death penalty. I don't want him released--and he isn't likely to get parole. Even if he did live long enough to finish his sentence, a finding that he is criminally insane will probably get him placed in a mental facility permanently.

There are many, many murderers out there walking amongst us, and yet the murder rate has dropped by 50% and violent crime is way, way down. Most of those who get released tend to be like Jesk--while those who are executed tend to be either really unattractive, poor, a member of a minority, or too crazy/stupid to do what they can to avoid the death penalty (like pleading guilty).

So, try again: why should this crazy person be executed when other crazy people don't get the death penalty? Why are you blaming liberals for raising the crime rate when crime has decreased (well, violent crime)? Will you give liberals the credit for lowering the crime rate now that you know it has gone down? That is, try basing your argument in the facts and then try again.

Why don't you ask the dead people want they want done?If no response,then ask their next of kin.They'll respond and decry this POS.

the guy already tried to commit suicide twice. why should our tax dollars keep this guy alive so he can die in prison? just for sympathy for the public and himself, put him down. i know if i was in his shoes and twice failed to commit suicide......life long in prison or death? i'd definately choose death.

It's so easy to look at his mangled face and say "he's an animal, just put him down." If you had a child with a severe disability, would you want that child to be "put down" so he wouldn't suffer any more?

But the main problem with the death penalty overall is the unequal use of it. If you are poor and black and shoot someone, you'll probably get an overworked, underpaid public defender and you'll get the death penalty. If you're a rich kid going to Harvard and shoot someone, you'll get an extremely good (and expensive) criminal defense attorney, and if he can't completely clear you, you probably won't do more than 7 to 12 years. Plead down to Man1. The poor get the death penalty, the rich rarely do.

Since it's pretty obvious that this man is not sane, but rather very mentally ill, under the constitutional law that bans cruel and unusual punishment he should spend the rest of his life in the criminal ward of a mental hospital. Mental illness puts people in a prison in their own minds as it is; with treatment and the right medication, he might be doing a little better. Or not. It's often hard to find the right medication for some people. He's clearly spent most of his life dealing -- poorly, and without treatment -- with mental illness. His suicide attempts show that. And no, attempting suicide does not mean he wants to die; it means that he can't go on living with his mental illness. If you doubt me, ask yourself, have you been there? I've never wanted to harm another being. I have, however, wanted to kill myself because I felt like I could not live one more single day or hour or minute with the godawful emotional pain I was suffering. A doctor intervened, bless him, and with some time in a psych ward, the appropriate medications, and a lot of hard work in counseling, I'm now managing my mental illness, which is depression and severe anxiety disorder. Since I am mentally ill and tried to kill myself, should I be executed? I have managed to do some good in my life; I've never hurt anyone, but if mentally ill people who've tried to kill themselves should be killed, well, I wouldn't be writing this, would I? Think about it. And it's easy to dehumanize people like this by calling him an "animal." It's OK to kill a sick animal. But he is not an animal. He is a human being. He is mentally ill, yes, and that mental illness was probably a major part of why he killed. He didn't ask to be mentally ill. He would probably like to feel like most people on the outside feel. But he can't. He should be kept away from society and given appropriate care -- but he doesn't deserve the death penalty. No one does. It is wrong. Hitler thought it was the ultimate solution; are we like him, or have we learned something since WWII? I know most of you will not agree with me, but by allowing people to be legally put to death, and not doing anything about it, you too, readers, are guilty of murder. And you don't think you're mentally ill, do you? It will be easy to call me a do-gooder, or a bleeding-heart liberal. If so, then think of this: It costs about $80,000 to keep a man in prison for 50 years. Because of the extended appeals process, it costs over $8 million to execute a man. Or woman. So if it's cost you're concerned about, think about that.

8 mil? i doubt that. and its not about him "dealing" with his mental illness, its also the fact he killed people. if you were mentally unstable, tried to kill yourself (twice), maiming your face horribly in the process, then going to life in prison for killing two innocent people, which would you choose LoriND.......being a prisoner in your own mind and being a "prisoner" or letting it all go? even if he gets proper meds, life in prison should be enough for a person to want to kill themself (again). save us all and himself, put him down. poor bastard probably feels more misery than any of us know.

@branxoz said:

If God decides to "disfigure" any of you funny people...I truly wonder how funny you would be then??? I am praying for you all...Goodbye...

If you bothered to read the article before popping off you'd find out god had nothing to do with it. He tried to blow his brains out at age 18 with a rifle and the gun slipped, destroying his face and leaving him alive. He tried to kill himself so many times and failed, he decided to kill other people so that the justice system would do for him what he couldn't figure out how to do for himself. Also, I laughed at the lineup snerk... because it was freaking funny.

Blah blah blah liberals. Blah blah conservatives blah. blah blah blah my political outlook blah blah. That is all I ever see om comment pages like this.

If he doesn't want to be here he doesn't want to be here! No sense in keeping him around to shoot more people in the head! We're worried about his level of insanity when innocent people in gas stations are getting slaughtered. Nice.

A functional MRI or fMRI, great. The nuclear contrast alone is enough to kill him slowly when the gadolinium metal is dechelated by low kidney function. He most likely has that due to his past medical history, too.

The US is routinely killing people, slowly, suffering, painfully with mri GADOLINIUM metal. You are diagnosed with chronic fatigue, depression and fibromyalgia, and Rx'd stupid meds to cover the side effects of this horribly cruel fibrosing man made disease. all the atty's know about gadolinium metal used for the magnets in the scanner. You know it accumulates as well as the Technetium, TC99, nuclear waste product used in CT scans, injected, inhaled. Gadolinium accumulation gets into the bones, disrupts the immune system, gets in eyes, all internal organs, eventually your skin. It makes you walk unbalanced, no appetite, nausea , hair loss, teeth break, all from radiation and nuclear junk injected into people, routinely.

See mri side effects , it is NOT RARE. READ The Plutonium Files and you will see the US has never stopped killing people, experimenting on them, post clinical trials and the plutonium injected into Americans who were poor, disabled, institutionalized, chronically ill, children, mentally ill, then women, children, pregnant women. This is still going on today. Plutonium was injected into Americans pre Hiroshima to see the effects of radiation. Well, they know the effects, but it hasn't stopped those greedy electric companies and pharmaceutical companies and are just plain cruel. It should be called The Gadolinium Files.

There is a page that quotes what the scientists thought, that the above marginalized groups should be rid of as they are a drag on society, but it was written much harsher than that. Eugenics anyone? Still exists.

If the man is found to be mentally ill he will be confined to a secure state hospital for the rest of his life.

Concerned veteran: Unfortunately the government is trying to shut down "state hospitals." This is truely not a viable or widely available option for the "forensic" mentally ill. Even if he was placed in a state institution, the goal there would be rehabilitation, not punishment. He would be discharged when deemed "stable." This is a huge problem in our society at this time, where to place the criminal who is mentally ill. The worst part is, even if a community mental health facility determines someone is violent with a mental illness, that person cannot be committed to a state facility until a crime is committed. I don't know what to do with this guy. He is a danger to himself and others and more than likely always will be. I had always thought that the death penalty was not so much a punishment but a way to protect society from those who cannot be rehabilitated. This man more than likely fits that to the letter. Society needs to be protected from him. Basically, why should the rights of ONE person supercede the rights of millions?

Just put him out of his misery.

Capital punishment makes no sense whatsoever. It costs too much (yes, much more than a life in prison). It's a political tool to make politicians, judges, and DA's seem more "tough on crime", yet it's the tax payers that flip the bill for the capital punishment. It's also immoral, unethical, and insane to follow murder with murder.

And who are all of these morons that keep maybe this strange leap of logic that not executing = letting them go? People let off of capital punishment get life in prison. You want to talk about executing people, put down some of these morons with zero reasoning skills, yet still cast a vote. They're why the Great Recession happened.

Before you make up your mind that life in prison is an appropriate punishment, consider the following. Recent ly on the news, a convicted killer wrote a taunting letter from death row to his victim's family saying how his life in prison is spent as a "man of leisure". Taking naps when he wanted, good meals, recreation, etc. Does this sound like punishment to you. You bleeding heart liberals really need to talk to the victims families before defending the lives of these POS's.

If God decides to "disfigure" any of you funny people...

Did you bother to read the article? He did it to himself...with a rifle...during his first attempt at suicide.

If you had a child with a severe disability, would you want that child to be "put down" so he wouldn't suffer any more?

See my above comment.

If God decides to "disfigure" any of you funny people...

Did you bother to read the article? He did it to himself...with a rifle...during his first attempt at suicide.

If you had a child with a severe disability, would you want that child to be "put down" so he wouldn't suffer any more?

See my above comment. He wasn't born that way, it's his own fault.

Myself, I'm of two minds.

1. If he's so determined to die, why bother arguing for his life?

2. If he's so determined to die, punish him by making him live!

edit: I'm not sure why it double posted...sorry!

@ChuckinOlathe, And what if some of us "bleeding heart liberals" have been victims of violent crime ourselves and still hold our opinions that killing is wrong, state-sanctioned or otherwise?

The man is mentally ill. His entire life has been "punishment".

What options does society have to protect itself?

Excellent question.

In this case, life in prison without parole would protect society every bit as securely as killing the man would, and maybe even better, since a callous disregard for human life does nothing to deter murders by others.

He's a rabid dog...put him down. Should mental illness give someone a James Bond license to kill?

We put down bad dogs that kill people. Why not put down people that kill others?

Because for some of us, there is a difference between people and animals.

Since this is Mississippi, I feel bad that this guy didn't have a chance to work at the governor's mansion. In Mississippi, some murderers go to death row, some go to the Governor's mansion to earn clemency through proper shining of the gov's shoes.

Branzox, he tried to kill himself. "God" didn't disfigure him nor did "God" remove your ability to actually read an article, you decided to not read it all on your own. He tried to kill himself and failed, why not give him his wish. I think most people are sick of excuses, if he's so nuts he's killing people he's serving no good purpose on this earth is he, remove him from it.

Some years back a murderer escaped from an Arizona secure prison and killed several people while on the loose, eleven if I remember right.

How many times has this happened compared to the number of times an innocent person was executed?

Put a chair and a belt in his room and see if he can figure it out.

You know in Nazi Germany they practiced euthanasia of mental defectives. Do you guys live in America in 2012 or in Nazi Germany in 1943? Do you even care of how you look in front of the entire world?

INNOCENT mental defectives, and that is horrible. This man is not innocent. He committed capital murder, and he is right where he should be... awaiting execution.

As far as how it looks... it looks like people not coddling criminals and not having a bleeding heart on every jury believing every sleazy defense lawyer's 'it's not his fault, he's sick' line of bull@!$%#.

yes somepeople are just to dangerous ..they like to do harm to others...to fill good..how did he know to pull the trlgger

How much brains does it take to pull a trigger? He's crazy, not stupid.

Elvis, you hit the nail on the head when you said "Yes some people are just dangerous..they like to do harm to others...to feel good." He was sane enough to know how to pull the trigger of that gun, and I doubt he gave the victim a chance, so he should die just like the victim. I say give him a 21-gun salute with automatic rifles all of them fully loaded.

As a parent of a mentally ill (now grown up) child, I beg of everyone concerned not to put these people to death. Their whole lives are prison to a certain extent and what we need is better care for people with mental health needs. Compassion and safety for all. It can be done.

Concerned 623- Then how about we send him to your house for the rest of his life. Did you want him sent with, or without any weapons............?

Maybe in some karma plane a mentally ill person whose life is a prison to a certain extent might find the next place better? I can't see keeping this guy around. If he were nice and didn't kill maybe; but I don't want to have to house and feed him.

Lovely, comparing human beings to animals to justify state sanctioned murder.

God told us not to kill, he granted no exception, but the hypocrites of the religious right only listen to god when it suits their vanity.

Talk about hypocripsy, liberals have no problem with sanctioned murder when it comes to abortion. Apparently, murderers are entitled to more rights and compassion than unborn babies.

The question isn't liberal vs conservative in this or in abortion. It's a mater of choice and belief. But that's about as close of a comparison as a sound-minded person can get to comparing a death sentence case to an abortion. The real question here is "did he understand right from wrong and did he know what he did was wrong before he did it." If he did, then his mental illness in no way exempts him from the death penalty.

He only resembles being Human, he needs to be permanently removed, it is not our responsibility to care for a creature like him/it. him/its not human. caging him/it is not right ether, its time to execute. shame on those lawyers. of course he is mentally ill aren't all murderers.

I totally agree with you! I am so sick and tired of the Libs out there who actually feel sorry for those who kill, I do feel bad he has a mental illness, but he is a danger to our society and must be taken out of it,permanently!! And the lethal injection they get is a hell of alot nicer than the bullet that killed his victims! So don't give me this crap that they feel so much pain when they give the needle! We have become wimps! Look how overcrowded with murderers and killers our prisons have become!! Like Toby Keith sang-"It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground"..it's called it's called JUSTICE!!

What about everybody else's karma? When the state murders, they do so in my name and your name. That's not okay.

Put him in the general population at a Max-security facility, the other inmates will kill him just so they don't have to look at his face while they eat. If he is put him in a metal facility the staff, nurses and doctors will have their lives put in danger.

By most standards the whole human race is insane-we drink the lactate of other animals (cow's and goat's) after our own puberty. We drive around in vehicles that have 1000's of explosions per minute happening in its engine to reach speeds that nature never intended for use to move at. We knowingly pollute our food supplies and water. The list goes on.

I find it odd that some of the most politically and socially powerful people who are opposed to the death penalty have no trouble putting their money in companies (mutual funds and 401k's included) that make equipment and parts which are used specifically to kill lots and lots of people. Hypocrisy at its finest!

Disgusted, people on the religious right do NOT support the death penalty. Well, the Catholic Church does NOT! I sure do NOT! What you are probably reading are comments from liberals and their lack of compassion is telling!

Keep him in jail for the rest of his life in order to keep society safe. BTW, It is much cheaper to keep him there than to execute him. It costs between 2-3 MILLION of our tax payer dollars to execute a prisoner just through the appeals process! It costs around a half million to keep him in jaiil for life!

Morons. Animals with rabies are not put down because they're dangerous. They're put down because they have rabies, which is a highly communicable disease. Insanity is not contagious, unless you consider some of the morons commenting around here.

Keep him in jail for the rest of his life in order to keep society safe. BTW, It is much cheaper to keep him there than to execute him.

Correct.

the other inmates will kill him just so they don't have to look at his face while they eat.

That's not really funny, nor are any of the other cracks about the way the man looks. Grow up, people.

If someone is too crazy and dangerous to exist in the community but we can't keep them locked up forever, what choice do we have?

False reasoning. We can keep him in jail for the rest of his life. That will protect society. As Cygnus pointed out, his defect is not contagious. And there is no need to lock him up forever.

Those of you talking about animals, liberals, conservatives, etc. are all guilty of sloppy reasoning. Please stick to the topic.

are you sure about that? and it's right from wrong not right to wrong. looks like you don't know it.

I think the phrase you were looking for is: Two wrongs don't make a right..........but 3 lefts do........

That is exactly the problem being discussed!!!! Not everyone can determain right from wrong. Thats what make a person eligible for the not guilty by reason of insanity plea.I think he knows right from wrong even though he has a mental illness. I mean come on, who can shoot someone in the face after trying to kill themselves several times and not be mentaly ill. I don't think this excusses him though, he knew he was trying to kill himself and he knew he was going to try to kill those people. He earned the death penalty.

That's why we have laws, and if you break them no distinction should be made about "sane" and "crazy".

Anyone, I repeat anyone who commits murder can not be considered sane in the first place.

Murder charges are based on intent, so no, not all murderers are insane. Some people kill for financial gain, for freedom, for revenge, out of jealousy, etc., etc., etc. Then you have your sociopaths who kill because the simply enjoy the process. And then you have people like this guy, who has a history of mental illness, has tried suicide before and honestly, sounds like he'll finally succeed. State assisted suicide... the way to accomplish what you can't seem to get right. Maybe it's all our fault for not helping the guy before he got to that point.

Darthfrodo that's because three lefts cant agree on one direction. sorry had to say that.

This man is NOT insane.....he is mentally ill and there is a huge difference. He had the mental ability to progress thru a logical thinking pattern (such as.....Step 1: Get a gun Step 2: Get ammo Step 3: Load gun CORRECTLY with ammo Step 4: Make sure the safety is off Step 5: Place end of the gun in the desired location of the body Step 6: Pull the trigger without jerking your hand Step 7: Repeat, if necessary.) Okay now...if he has the mental ability to try to commit suicide in at least TWO different ways than he is functioning. This man is mentally ill with a diagnosis of severe depression and suicide idealogy and attempts. That in no way impairs him from killing someone else! And for those of you who will find this offensive (someone always does!!) let me conclude with this.....I have severe depression with suicidal idealogy and attempts and I am NOT a murderer and NOT insane. Execute him....mental illness is a disability...if he was epileptic would that be a problem?? Nope.

Thanks, LMartin0219. I, too, suffer from clinical depression and bipolar disorder and have suicidal idealogy, with attempts and the scars to prove it, which has been described as situational and impulsive. I have aggression and rage issues at times, during which I am disciplined enough to stay at home and avoid confrontational situations.

There is a HUGE difference between mental illness and criminally insane. Am I capable of hurting someone? Yes, I think we all are given a volatile situation. Am I capable of planning a crime which, in all likelihood, will involve harming/killing someone else? No.

This man's mental health history should be fully investigated. Was he a functioning member of society and able to care for his day-to-day functions of life? Was he taking medication and/or seeking help with his mental health issues? All these questions need to be answered. There cannot be a blanket answer to every criminal and/or their attorney who claim mental illness. There have been tragic cases of a severely mentally ill person murdering but there were family members/spouses who were aware of the extent and did absolutely nothing, were even detrimental, to the treatment and care of these people who should have been hospitalized under treatment and counseling.

Personally, I'm not sure that the man's mental health has that much to do with it, but what is the point of killing people if it's cheaper and just as effective (in terms of protecting society) to keep them in jail for life?

Some people are so evil they can only be stopped by killing them, and perhaps bin Laden was one such example.

But this guy?

Unfortunately, kickingcancer, sometimes the family's hands are tied because it is virtually impossible to commit anyone against his or her will. Most states have the standard "a threat to oneself or others" which means a RECENT suicide attempt or threat or actual violence or attempted violence. We don't really know to what extent his remaining relatives tried to get him help.

40 years ago it was far too easy to force treatment on people. Now, we've gone to the opposite extreme, which is just as bad.

Thank you elvis! The genuinely mentally ill should not have to take the rap for the evil.

The words are "mentally ill", Gomer.

Mentally ill or not if they are a hazard to people they should be exicuited! not caged. death has more compasion than captivity.

Never mind.

some people you just cant cure.

Frontal lobotomy worked real good 75 years ago. Was performed on many violent mentally ill people, including Henry Ford's daughter.

Willow, how much consideration have you given to the fact that honest, decent people, of all ages, struggle and do without essentials? Why should taxpayer dollars be used to house, feed, and give medical care to evil people when we cannot afford to assist the worthy?

Execution is not the 'feel-good remedy'. It is the only rational solution to how to protect society from evil.

There are other alternatives besides execution and letting them go free. BTW, jkatze, it's been proven over and over that the death penalty actually costs a lot MORE than life imprisonment.

Why should taxpayer dollars be used to house, feed, and give medical care to evil people when we cannot afford to assist the worthy?

If you're really concerned about taxpayer dollars, we can start by ending the war on drugs and stop imprisoning people who harm no one except maybe themselves.

could anybody imagine that every sociapath is mentally ill. Some people are just not worth the caring that our society that thinks this it's obligation. A family of nuts should never be given free reign to terrorize our society. We're talking horror movies here. These people have no problem killing whomever they think have been in their way of some type of a better life for themselves. Lets all knock this off and put these sick killers in thier graves

Oom: Ever wonder why execution costs more? I would like a breakdown on the cost. Hard to believe isn't it?

Actually there have been many victim's families over the too many years of state sponsored murder who have petitioned the courts for mercy for the killer of their loved one. They understand that killing someone in the name of the court does not make it right. It does not bring back thier lost child, parent, brother or sister. It does not take away the pain of their loss.

We have in this country the option to keep people incarcerated for life. It is not a perfect solution but it is more just than killing another human being. Especially if that human being does not have the ability to put the brakes on their violent behavior. Imagine, if you will, someone giving you a car than can go from 0-60 in 3 seconds, now imagine the car has no brakes. You cannot stop the car no matter what you do. This is the type of mental illness that those like the man in this story suffer from. They do not have the functioning part of the brain that allows the rest of us to control our acts. They are simply unable to do so.

Then, there is the problem discussed often of late concerning the number of innocent people who have been executed or who were on death row when new or previously hidden evidence proves their innocence. They were judged erroneously by a jury of their peers, although malfeasance on the part of law enforcement and prosecutors may have contributed to their guilty verdict. They are just as dead regardless of the reason if they are not lucky enough to have people to advocate for them. And that is murder, most foul. The blood of every one of those innocents is on our hands. And the tears their families cried for them are our fault. We allowed it to happen and many, sadly praised it.

The point is that it is wrong to kill others. Trying to make it OK by saying it is justice is disingenuous at best and an out and out corruption of our supposedly civilized nation at its worst. We are nothing but barbarians in business suits.

The reason execution costs more than life in prison is the cost of all the appeals. One appeal gets disapproved and a lawyer tweaks it a bit and trys again. After twenty years of this the costs add up when you realize that appeals can cost as much as half a million dollars (on the extreme high end) and run several tens of thousands of dollars for routine attempts.

Oh, and by the way, murder is the premeditated UNLAWFUL killing of a human being. Lawful killing cannot be murder.

Lawful killing??? Hmmmm. For a nation that claims to be so civil. You kill ppl to teach ppl that killing is wrong..Its the American way.

lol! Wrapping up murder with nice words like "lawful killing" changes nothing. Murder is murder.

Perhaps the real issue here is that we need to accept responsibility for our system, or lack of, to help the mentally ill. One-Third of the homeless have serious mental illness, who will be both victims and perpetrators of crime. There are virtually no checks for people who are sick. It is like asking children to be responsible for themselves in many cases. Our system identifies this and yet, we do nothing. Perhaps we all need to go look in the mirror the next time something like this happens and take some responsibility for a system that throws away the sick and weak.

Willow most of them don't care, this one tried to kill himself more then once, he is just better at killing others then himself. and if you want to keep him in a mental institution then you pay for it, it will cost thousands of dollars per month, I dont want to. I truley believe the best thing is to set him free by exicution.

@ Jeanette if you give the victims family a gun and a bullit its only pennies. if it really cost millions to kill someone there would not be all these killings. just shoot him and be done with it , or use a rope you can recycle it.

Oom: Ever wonder why execution costs more?

The endless appeals for one thing. They end up costing the state an incredible amount per prisoner. Second, on death row they cannot perform any work that might offset the cost of their confinement. Some people might be too dangerous to be in the general prison population, but most of them could still do some sort of useful work, even if just some clerical job from their cells. On death row this is impossible. Death row itself is far more expensive to maintain, and people stay on it for over a decade.

Why should taxpayer dollars be used to house, feed, and give medical care to evil people when we cannot afford to assist the worthy?

One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Are you saying if we kill this guy worthy people will be given free housing, food, and medical care? Baloney!

Contrary to your implication, it costs MORE to kill someone than it does to incarcerate them for life.

Finally, if you are saying we should kill people willy nilly merely because life requires resources, you have really messed up priorities, to say the least.

Execution is not the 'feel-good remedy'. It is the only rational solution to how to protect society from evil.

Again, baloney. We can EASILY protect society from this guy by sentencing him to life in prison.

Promoting a callous disregard for human life is a very poor strategy for protecting society from future murders.

If we make mental illness a way out to escape justice, then eventually most people who kill people will escape justice, as they will be diagnosed with one mental illness or another. What do we as a society do?

You have a funny idea of 'justice'. Perhaps "revenge" is what you really meant?

To my way of thinking, justice would mean bringing the victims back to life. It can't be done.

Therefore, the focus should be on protecting society. THAT can be done by putting him in jail for life.

Give him a gun, and a secure room, and let him take care of the problem himself, since he obviously wants to do that. Freedom of choice.

Has he said that he still wants to die? If he has, then oblige him; execute him.

Yeah, because if someone doesn't know wtf they're doing they should be punished almost 20 years later for it.

Chances are this gangsta' doesn't even remember why he's in prison. Throw him in an isolated area and keep him there?

If he didn't know wtf he was doing he'd be legally insane. He's not claiming he didn't know what he was doing: he DID know what he was doing, he's just claiming he was unable to control himself. Which is bull@!$%#. Having a mental illness doesn't absolve you of responsibility for doing horrible things you know are wrong.

Bruce, where did you go to medical school?

Ok I can clearly see why we would want to put him to death for his actions, and yes it would seem he didnt want to be here until he was told he had to die. When looking at a case of guilt by reason of insanity we need to know whether or not he knew what he was doing at the time, and if he understood what he was doing was a crime. I think he does have mental illness BUT that he clearly knew what he was doing so he needs to pay the price. Mental illness is not an automac get out free card, and it should not be. Trully ill people who are to messed up to realize what they are doing need help and to have a punishment, but I don't feel this guy deserves a second chance.

I'm afraid of killers getting loose and killing again! ANDit's happened, so I say bring back the firing squad!!

Well, I'm very conservative, and my beloved little cousins were murdered by their mother, whom I had always hated. But she got the insanity defense, and rightly so. What does it prove when the state itself murderers, especially when it murders people unjustly? Killing the insane is like shooting fish in a barrel or pulling the wings off flies. It sends the message that we only care about vengeance, but justice be damned. Just like abortion, it creates even more disrespect for human life.

Did you think the high court was wrong when they abolished capital punishment for the retarded?

AAAA18, do you have a living will? I don't know if it would be binding, but if you mean what you are saying, you might want to at least talk to an attorney.

I have to disagree! If with medication and therapy a person is able to start to grasp the reality of what they did and can understand it was wrong, and show TRUE remorse then they should be allowed to live but in a state care system where they get constant help and can not do that to anyone else ever again.

if he is executed there is a 100 % chance he will never do it again, if he is in a state institution there is a chance he could kill there. or escape and kill again, he needs to be pushing up daisies someplace. 1 appeal and fry him.

no he gets three meals a day ..medical.....warm place to sleep...

Inmates in prison usually have a better life than you or I do. They get 3 hot meals a day, guarenteed health and mental care, without having to work for a living or contribute anything. Just remember- a guy that brutally rapes and sodomizes a 2 year old, will get better recreation and health care than you do. Death penalty is always option. In fact, I don't think it's used enough ha.

AAAA18

Death penalty is always option.

The sanctioning of ending the life of a criminal by the government is still considered murder according to the definition of murder. I do not support murder in any form (that includes abortion). Not for the individual and definitely not for the crooked criminals currently in charge of running this country.

Inmates in prison usually have a better life than you or I do

Then why not rob a bank so you can improve your lifestyle? /sarcasm

Realist, murder is defined as the premeditated UNLAWFUL killing of a human being. If the killing is lawful then it cannot be murder by defininition.

Sure, and while we're at it, all the children in third world countries born with cleft palates. /sarcasm

he wasn't born with sh*t, he got that as a result of a self inflicted gunshot wound in an attempt to kill himself. Sarcasm noted, but this has absolutely nothing to do with poverty stricken 3d world children, it is about 1 ratsh*t crazy American who is a menace to himself, and anything else that walks or breathes. Whole family apparently wasn't mentally right, who knows, maybe some serious incest?

you are right about they know what they are doing..but i could not just put someone down for being born that way

Let's start with you and elvis payne.

What exactly are you saying Dave, that someone should die for posting an opinion that differs from yours?

killing someone for having an opinion dave? really? they want to put this guy to death for murdering 2 innocent people and you want to kill 2 people for disagreeing with you, wow. if i were you i would start thinking about not posting until you see someone about your thought process.

Yes...I would imagine part of his problem was how he looked. His life must have become worse for him after he did that to himslef. I can't believe there was no one that saw what he was going through...but i do believe that someone never tried to help.

Mental illness is not taken seriously in this country.

GOD??? Is there a god? I have seen NOTHING that says there is.

Dave-2820942

Either you're not looking very hard or you need to open your eyes.

ACP, thank you for saying this. I am NOT a lapsed Christian, I still try to live our the gospel commandment that Jesus gave us.

This man is mentally ill. He is not evil like Hitler or Saddam Hussein. No, he should not be free to walk the streets. He is a deeply disturbed human being. He is not a rabid animal. He should not be treated like one and "put down" as another poster suggested. That was Hitler's solution to dealing with other human beings he saw as inferior.

There is a huge difference between justice and vengeance. I work with people whose loved ones have been victims of violent crimes. I am here to tell you that the death penalty has never given anyone of the people I've worked with any type of closure. All it does is recompartmentalize their suffering.

Take for example Susan, the daughter of Rosemary LaBianca, one of the victims of the Manson murders. This remarkable woman, through good therapy, learned the difference between justice and vengeance. She was able to forgive Charles "Tex" Watson and actually met him face to face on several occasions before revealing who she was (as far as he knew she was just another human being). The healing she experienced was nothing short of remarkable. Yet Doris Tate (Sharon Tate's suffering mother) stood up and called her a stupid b!tch to her face. Even if Mr. Watson had been executed, Mrs. Tate would still have been in a great deal of pain. She, herself, as since passed away.

I guess what I'm getting at is, this man, being severely mentally ill, has not belonged in an institution designed to punish. Do people really think convicts "have it easy?" You try living in solitary 23hrs a day. Someone who is mentally ill will only deteriorate further because they do NOT get mental health care (regardless of what another poster has said). You try living with the gang members, pedophiles, rapists, ect and see if you still think they have it easy. No....this man belongs in a proper mental health facility where he can get adequate treatment and fully understand the harm he did in the throes of his illness. And THEN he belongs in prison, not a graveyard.

Is the death penalty ever appropriate? Perhaps in extreme cases like Hitler, Saddam Hussein and other evil beings. But in the case of a deeply mentally ill person? Absolutely not. It's barbaric.

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and obey the law of the land? If the law of the land contravenes the law of God/Christ/The Prince of Peace, then I will be civilly disobedient.

Holy scripture can, and has, been quoted over and over again to justify evil and wrongdoing. To execute this man would be wrong, plain and simple in my book.

Why are you assuming that religious people all support the death penalty? The Vatican has opposed it for years. There are nearly always nuns having prayer vigils outside prisons when they execute someone. Most Jews oppose the death penality, as do many other people of other faiths.

I am a lapsedm non-church-attending sinner and I suspect I have more Christian charity in my small finger than most of you do in your God-praising, sounding-brass mouths.

Not to mention more humility, eh, ACP?

AMEN BROTHER!!!!! I have found that some of the most bigoted , hateful, and sinful people are those that going around preaching to everyone else on how to live their lives. How many times have you seen so called pillars of the christian community caught up in prositution scandals, extramarital dalliances, or in it just for the money? Yet they have the gaul to tell me how God wants me to live? I believe in God, but not that there is one religion that is all powerful and correct. The big man upstairs gave me free will to think and figure things out for myself. I live my life the best that I can with the cards I have been dealt. Remember this. I think that even mentally ill people know that hurting/killing someone else is wrong. That is basic human nature instilled into us.

my mom use to tell us kids this, not every person that goes to church is a good person, and half of those are running the church! this of course did not stop her from making us kids go to church, iv'e had the lions share of religion pounded into my head. so i believe in god , and like god i hate religion, want nothing to do with it. as far as this guy is concerned, he knew what he was doing when he tried to kill himself, the fact that he sucks at it is his fault, he knew what he was doing when he killed those two people. so i say fry him ASAP where god can pass judgement on him and send his sorry a## to hell where he belongs...

Hang him high; i don't want to keep paying to keep these pieces of s*it alive . As for the wrongly convicted most of them have been bad people all of there lives and we can do without them also. It is long past the time when we should be weeding out the chaf.

I can understand being hesitant about executing a person when the evidence is iffy or circumstantial. But when a person kills others in full view of multiple witnesses, video, and DNA is confirmed as well, there is NO doubt he/she is GUILTY.

Most of the cases of exoneration are from convictions before DNA and other newer forensic tools/tests. Now that these are commonplace and becoming even more hyper-accurate, it is indeed possible to know without any doubt, that a person is guilty, so the 'he might be innocent' canard won't fly anymore.

In this particular case, life without parole would seem to be 'cruel and unusual' punishment since he has attempted self-execution on several occasions in the past. I wonder if those advocating for life without parole in prison are the more truly vindictive souls in this argument. After all, a lifetime in what is essentially solitary, especially with some mental illness thrown in is cruel.

Dave,

Everybody comes up with this same argument, "only when we're sure" but under our system, there is NO WAY that can happen. Juries make these decisions. Juries can make mistakes.

herman-5134363

If people are "being put to sleep", as you say for our own good then why aren't rapists and pedophiles "being put to sleep" also? These two crimes have the greatest rate of recidivism of any crime yet they are allowed out to rape and defile again and again.

Realist-502574:

I don't think anyone would cry if rapists/pedophiles were executed. Quite the opposite, I can see tailgating at the prisons for the big event.

I can see tailgating at the prisons for the big event.

Actually, there have been "party" atmospheres for some executions, in the past. Ted Bundy comes to mind, for one example.

I'm in full agreement for the death penalty for all pedophiles, along with a send off party.

Steven100...he's "mental?" Do you mean mentally ill?

And the fact that you called him a freak just shows how kind you must be.

if the guy obtained a weapon, loaded the weapon, knew how to operate the weapon, knowing what happens when he fires the weapon at two people, competent enough to know that they would not just hand the money over unless threatened, then he KNEW what he was doing. period. all of you feel good he is crazy , we can't just put him to death people are kidding yourselves.. i say fry his ass....the sooner the better.......along with all the pedophiles....and have a send off tailgate party......chefaz has the right idea.