I'm back from my travels and glad to be home. That's that.
While I was on the road, I was following the story of the sentencing of the BTK killer. (BTW, I don't know what BTK stands for. They just kept saying the letters. Was I supposed to already know? If you know, share with us using the comment feature below, please.) He was convicted of having killed a number of people over a span of several years a couple decades ago, and has now been sentenced. He was given 10 consecutive life sentences without a chance for parole.
10 life sentences.
Am I missing something? Is there any difference between 1 life sentence and 2, 5, 7, 10 or 100 life sentences? Is it really a worse punishment, or is it just to make him look bad in the record books? I think we need to find something a little more meaningful to fill the enormous gap that obviously exists between a life sentence and a death sentence. The latter is not available (and may not be advisable) in many situations, and the former may well be insufficient for the worst criminals (see BTK).
What are our options here? I'd love to hear some suggestions via the comment feature. Otherwise, I fear we'll appear to have given up on finding a solution. Much like, according to Chris Rock, we have done with many diseases and physical conditions. If you've never heard his stand-up on this topic, you should. It's hilarious. My favorite example he gives is how we've given up on blindness. You can tell that we don't think there's a medical answer coming when we start prescribing dogs for something.
He says it better than I type it. Sorry.
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2 comments:
I really hope you were kidding about not knowing what BTK stands for...either way, I will pretend you did, just to preserve the image of you as a reasonably intelligent person
Ziggy--
BTK is bind, toture and kill. that is what he called himself when he was on this rampage and wrote letters to the police as BTK.
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