06-27-2011, 08:57 AM
What Brady did was horrible but he's a psychopath. Clinically diagnosed and, from what I've read, he had been predisposed to cruelty from a young age. There's no faking that. It's not some bullshit defence thought up after the fact to get him off. He was born with a psychological impairment (or suffered something at a very young age which retarded him emotionally). In that sense he is a victim in the same way someone with cerebral palsy is a victim.
What he did was to my mind more forgiveable than the actions of a drug dealer or a drunk driver who kills--rational people who have chosen to hurt others. Through no fault of his own he's too dangerous to ever be let out, but I don't think it would be any fairer to subject him to cruel and unusual punishment than it would be to punish all mentally and physically handicapped people.
As for his right to die? While I could perhaps accept normal prisoners sentenced to long periods of imprisonment making that decision of their own free will, I don't think mentally incapacitated prisoners can do so, at least not on their own. At the very least the next of kin should be required to agree.
What he did was to my mind more forgiveable than the actions of a drug dealer or a drunk driver who kills--rational people who have chosen to hurt others. Through no fault of his own he's too dangerous to ever be let out, but I don't think it would be any fairer to subject him to cruel and unusual punishment than it would be to punish all mentally and physically handicapped people.
As for his right to die? While I could perhaps accept normal prisoners sentenced to long periods of imprisonment making that decision of their own free will, I don't think mentally incapacitated prisoners can do so, at least not on their own. At the very least the next of kin should be required to agree.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."