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True only so long as the sociopath remains in prison, and possibly not even then, given the level of inmate violence in the prisons.
Which returns us to the central point: There are two types of governments: those that have fallen, and those that will.
When a government ceases to exist, so does its ability to segregate the sociopaths from the remainder of society. Society (which instituted the government) will still require protection from these newly liberated sociopaths, lest they prey upon the weaker members of society as they did before their incarceration.
Government, as the instrumentality of the larger construct called "society," owes it to the society that chartered and instituted it to use the death penalty (judiciously and one would hope, sparingly) in order to limit the damage these sociopaths will do in the absence of a government that can imprison them.
Phrased another way: There are sociopathic offenders who are so dangerous (fortunately relatively few in number) that government cannot take the chance that said offenders will outlive the government's capacity to imprison them. These are the offenders for whom the death penalty should be reserved.
In short, the death penalty must remain a rehabilitation option for these sociopaths.
Except that most criminals aren't sociopaths, even the ones who commit murder.
My point is, which I believe I made quite clear, is the government's job is to facilitate discipline, rehabilitation and atonement all the while ascertaining the criminal's future by making him or her ready to return to society as a productive citizen.
And if they can't or the crime is serious enough they should put him out of his misery.
Except that most criminals aren't sociopaths, even the ones who commit murder.
I would agree that not all criminals are sociopaths; but your average repeat B & E offender isn't going to be assessed the death penalty unless he murders someone in the process, and probably not even then.
I might even grant that not all killers are sociopaths. The drunken schlub who kills somebody in a bar over "fighting words," for instance, probably isn't a sociopath (he would be a drunken schlub who can't control his temper.) Such a defendant, even in Texas, is unlikely to receive the death penalty, assuming no other convictions for violent crimes.
Thrill killers and serial or spree killers, however, may indeed be sociopathic, and the DP should be available as an option to deal with this sort of offender. In the case of Ted Bundy, given his ability to escape prison and his itinerant nature, it was the only thing that stopped him. Another example is Arturo Maturino Resendiz, aka "The Railway Killer." Another example is Kenneth Allen McDuff, a sociopath so compulsively driven to kill that the only thing that would be certain to end his criminal career was death. The State of Texas was forced to oblige him.
None of the aforementioned sociopathic offenders were capable of rehabilitation by any other means. For example, McDuff had already spent 21 years in prison for murdering and raping three teenagers in 1966. Originally sentenced to death in 1968, his sentence was commuted in 1972 to life with the possibility of parole. He was paroled in 1989 due to prison overcrowding, and thereafter committed at least two more murders, for which he received the death penalty. McDuff was executed in November, 1998, for the murders of Melissa Ann Northrup and Colleen Reed. He was suspected in perhaps as many as nine other murders.
The most important thing to note here is that a 20-year stretch in prison for his first three murders didn't rehabilitate Kenneth Allen McDuff. And the failure to put McDuff to death for those murders eventually cost at least two other victims their lives, and possibly as many as nine additional victims paid the ultimate price because McDuff was not properly rehabilitated the first time around. We should note that there is no doubt whatsoever of McDuff's guilt in any of the five murders for which he was tried. There is considerable doubt, however, as to whether McDuff was adjudicated for all of the murders that he in fact committed. It is almost certain that other killings can be attributed to him.
Kenneth Allen McDuff was the exact type of sociopathic offender the death penalty is designed to deal with. It must remain an option in dealing with offenders of his ilk.
I would agree that not all criminals are sociopaths; but your average repeat B & E offender isn't going to be assessed the death penalty unless he murders someone in the process, and probably not even then.
I might even grant that not all killers are sociopaths. The drunken schlub who kills somebody in a bar over "fighting words," for instance, probably isn't a sociopath (he would be a drunken schlub who can't control his temper.) Such a defendant, even in Texas, is unlikely to receive the death penalty, assuming no other convictions for violent crimes.
Thrill killers and serial or spree killers, however, may indeed be sociopathic, and the DP should be available as an option to deal with this sort of offender. In the case of Ted Bundy, given his ability to escape prison and his itinerant nature, it was the only thing that stopped him. Another example is Arturo Maturino Resendiz, aka "The Railway Killer." Another example is Kenneth Allen McDuff, a sociopath so compulsively driven to kill that the only thing that would be certain to end his criminal career was death. The State of Texas was forced to oblige him.
None of the aforementioned sociopathic offenders were capable of rehabilitation by any other means. For example, McDuff had already spent 21 years in prison for murdering and raping three teenagers in 1966. Originally sentenced to death in 1968, his sentence was commuted in 1972 to life with the possibility of parole. He was paroled in 1989 due to prison overcrowding, and thereafter committed at least two more murders, for which he received the death penalty. McDuff was executed in November, 1998, for the murders of Melissa Ann Northrup and Colleen Reed. He was suspected in perhaps as many as nine other murders.
The most important thing to note here is that a 20-year stretch in prison for his first three murders didn't rehabilitate Kenneth Allen McDuff. And the failure to put McDuff to death for those murders eventually cost at least two other victims their lives, and possibly as many as nine additional victims paid the ultimate price because McDuff was not properly rehabilitated the first time around. We should note that there is no doubt whatsoever of McDuff's guilt in any of the five murders for which he was tried. There is considerable doubt, however, as to whether McDuff was adjudicated for all of the murders that he in fact committed. It is almost certain that other killings can be attributed to him.
Kenneth Allen McDuff was the exact type of sociopathic offender the death penalty is designed to deal with. It must remain an option in dealing with offenders of his ilk.
I agree there are offenders who can not be rehabilitated. But the thing that struck me most about your post is the fact that McDuff was released due to prison overcrowding. Why weren't lower level offenders released? That's a huge and dumb mistake on the part of the state. While I completely see your point and want to agree with you, I just can't agree that its okay to kill these people.
I agree there are offenders who can not be rehabilitated. But the thing that struck me most about your post is the fact that McDuff was released due to prison overcrowding. Why weren't lower level offenders released? That's a huge and dumb mistake on the part of the state. While I completely see your point and want to agree with you, I just can't agree that its okay to kill these people.
If by "these people" you mean lower-level offenders, I agree. I have never advocated for the wholesale execution of offenders who actually stand some chance of rehabilitation by any means short of the death penalty, which would include most people in prison. The Texas prison system, as you may have heard, has hosted more than its share of hombres muy malos, one of which was Kenneth Allen McDuff. Most offenders aren't like McDuff, but he exemplifies the very reason society must have capital punishment, at least as an option, to deal with offenders of his type.
McDuff is an exceptional case in that: 1) He was a sociopath who was utterly incapable of rehabilitation by any measure short of execution, and 2) he was a crystalline example of what can go wrong when the prison system erroneously concludes that a sociopath can be re-integrated into society.
McDuff had been given three death sentences for the rape and murder of three teenagers in August, 1966, in what became known as "The Broomstick Murders." His accomplice in these acts, one Roy Dale Green, turned himself in, was also convicted, and spent eleven years in prison before being released. McDuff's death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment pursuant to the 1972 Supreme Court decision. Shortly thereafter, McDuff hired an attorney who was able to compile a dossier of evidence that purported to point to Green as the actual murderer, rather than McDuff. This evidence was presented to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and some members of the board were apparently convinced by this evidence.
Later on, in a one-on-one meeting with a parole board official, McDuff offered a bribe in exchange for a favorable vote on his parole application. He was sentenced to an additional two years in prison for this crime, but, incomprehensibly, a majority of the Parole Board concluded he was a good parole risk anyway, and McDuff was released in 1989, along with 20 former Death Row inmates and 127 murderers, not to mention several thousand other offenders who also were probably poor recidivism risks. (1989 was apparently something less than the pinnacle of administrative success for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.)
It can be said that Kenneth McDuff, in 1989, actually outlived the government's capacity to incarcerate him. He was paroled and set loose on society. Innocent members of society who had the misfortune to encounter him paid for their misfortune with their lives.
After at least two more murders (and possibly as many as nine more), McDuff was apprehended, tried and convicted. Prior to his sentencing in 1992, Texas Monthly jounalist Gary Cartwright, not exactly known as a capital punishment firebrand, remarked, ""If there has ever been a good argument for the death penalty, it's Kenneth McDuff." McDuff was executed by lethal injection in 1998.
After his arrest in 1992 for the Northrup and Reed killings, Texas launched a major overhaul of its prison laws aimed at preventing violent offenders from winning early parole. The Texas Legislature authorized the construction of additional prison facilities, tightened parole rules, and improved monitoring of high-risk parolees in a group of bills collectively known as the "McDuff Laws."
What went wrong in 1989, leading to McDuff's parole and release? First, the 1972 Supreme Court decision overturning the death penalty set the stage for McDuff's second murderous rampage 20 years later. Another factor: he was released, alongside many other offenders who probably had no business walking the streets, because TDCJ had to make room for newly convicted offenders in 1989. The rest is probably attributable to the fact that McDuff, an irredeemable sociopath, was able to convince the Board of Pardons and Paroles of something they were predisposed to believe in the first place because of the need to relieve prison overcrowding: that he was at low risk for recidivism, something that was clearly not the case.
Had McDuff received the death penalty for his three 1968 murder convictions, at least two citizens of Texas and as many as nine more would not have had to pay with their lives years later. The case of Kenneth Allen McDuff is a case study in how the death penalty, when properly administered, can actually save innocent lives.
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