[FlamingCobra]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-12-30/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-ohio-20131230_1_elias-acevedo-pamela-pemberton-ariel-castro

tl;dr, a murderer, kidnapper, and rapist plead guilty to all 297 charges against him and was sentenced to 445 years in prison without any chance of parole. He'll probably kill himself just like his neighbor Ariel Castro.

[headdie]

seriously, I get the point that the guy is a serious piece of work who should never see the light of day again, but 445 year???? I think we have crossed the line, gone through comedy and into the realms of the academic, I mean that is in the region of 6-7 times the average human lifespan.

[AtomicClucker]

Do you think Prosecutors care? Hell no, just another notch on the belt. They make a point of maximizing charges for plea deals.  I would normally expect ridiculous charges against War Criminals.

However, provided the guy isn't killed by the inmates, he's boned already.

[Veers]

I think it's better than what some are getting here in Australia, where the sentences (depending on the crime(s) & charges) and range from a few months to about 20 years with parole after 4. Severely under for quite a number of crimes.

But if you wanted him away for good, it's certainly been done.

[AtomicClucker]

The Anglophone countries unfortunately have a "knee jerk" law system that rewards overcharging and spurious use of Prosecutorial powers for political gain and profit, hell just read some of Radley Balko's stuff about the Rise of the Warrior Cop for depressing news.

I've the opinion that public prosecutors should be all required to work as pro-bono defense lawyers for four years before being allowed to work the bench, or any legal functions.

But back to this case, even the Death Penalty seems more like mercy than these charges, and I'm against the death penalty~

[Nuke]

20 years in an american prison is probibly worse than the death penalty. nobody wants to go to jail in america.

[karajorma]

I fail to see a problem. They wanted to make sure he'd never be released, they made sure of it. Even if he gets time off for good behaviour he's still going to be in there for 100 years+

[Nuke]

its just summation really. every charge comes with a penalty and those penalty accumulate. i think of it as a score for how bad you can be. higher numbers win (a long life of prison rape, gang beatings, and neglect).

[Lorric]

Yes, I like these. It means every victim gets their piece of the pie. Every crime is acknowledged and the sentence handed down for each one.

[Nuke]

things get worse too. i fell sorry for anyone who winds up in this asshole's jail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

muricans know how to imprison people, we are the best in the world in this regard.

[MP-Ryan]

The Anglophone countries unfortunately have a "knee jerk" law system that rewards overcharging and spurious use of Prosecutorial powers for political gain and profit, hell just read some of Radley Balko's stuff about the Rise of the Warrior Cop for depressing news.

Only in countries where prosecutors are elected or serve at the pleasure of elected officials.

So... the United States.

[Dragon]

Well, I'd say good riddance. He should be forbidden to die before his sentence expires. Every single one of his crimes would, IMO, warrant an execution, so it's good they found something worse. 445 years ensures that he won't ever have a perspective of release, which is what they were going for, I suppose. Scum like that needs to be either kept locked down or shot.

[BloodEagle]

As much as I recognize where it comes from and why, and as much as I agree that some distasteful things have to be done in order to keep society orderly, I always feel disturbed as Hell when people are cheering for torture as a form of justice or are just tickled pink at the prospect of another human being dead.

[666maslo666]

I like this system a lot. Imagine if a cure for aging is discovered tomorrow. Suddenly all those life in prison sentences would be a lot more harsh than originaly meant to. Sentences should be spelt out in numbers every time, even if it means hundreds of years. Its more logical and fair that way.

[Nuke]

its a good assholeometer.

[Dragon]

As much as I recognize where it comes from and why, and as much as I agree that some distasteful things have to be done in order to keep society orderly, I always feel disturbed as Hell when people are cheering for torture as a form of justice or are just tickled pink at the prospect of another human being dead.

Well, I don't see a problem here. We're talking a monster, not a human. It might look like one, but things often look like something they're not.

[The E]

Dehumanizing people who have no power is not a good thing to do.

Yes, criminals, even those guilty of the most heinous and vile crimes, are still human. Marking them as being not human is not a step a civilized society should make.

[karajorma]

Indeed. I have no problem with him staying in jail for a very, very long time but that is precisely because he is human. If he were a monster we'd kill him and mount his corpse in a museum. Or stick him in a zoo to be looked at by tourists.


Even if you won't do it for the reasons The E obliquely mentions, you shouldn't dehumanise people who do monsterous acts because most "civilised" people are capable of doing them themselves. It just takes the right circumstances. Our main protection against doing stuff like that, is should the circumstances ever arise, to choose not to. The second you start saying that people who do that aren't human, you remove your most powerful defence against becoming like them yourself.

[Flak]

If I think he is no longer human, I'd toss him into a tank full of sharks or a cage of tigers.

[Dragon]

Actually, most people are simply incapable of consciously killing another human, regardless of circumstances. In most cases, it takes about six months of brutal conditioning to change that in a military boot camp. And even then, half of it is convincing a recruit that the enemy isn't human. To be able to kill and rape "just like that", one must be dehumanized, as those things go against everything the civilized society conditions us not to do. It's impossible to operate in a human society while completely rejecting this conditioning.
While large-scale wars and prison camps can do this to anyone (indeed, the latter were often designed to do just that), some "people" are like that even without them. The difference is that while someone dehumanized by a war or a concentration camp can remember the life before it and, with some help, regain his humanity, I don't think there's any hope for those who are like that from the beginning.

And as I said before, as a monster, it should be locked down or shot. Exhibiting is another matter, and unnecessary in that case, is it really isn't much to look at.