Death is a poor punishment for a terrorist.

[Bicoastal]

What's so bad about death? Everybody dies. Not everyone, though, has the honor of growing old in a teeny tiny room while pondering their regrettable actions for the rest of their miserable lives.

Faced with such, I'd take death. He deserves life.

[Gravitycollapse]

1. The infliction of suffering alone should not be the primary qualifier for imprisonment.

It is in fact the case that prison should be about prisoner rehabilitation in whatever capacity that might be possible.

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. Great - let's rehab him at your place. nt

[Gravitycollapse]

11. Like clockwork.

[liberalmuse]

9. Oops, too civilized for America.

Off to Canada with you! Enjoy the free socialist healthcare and greatly lowered odds of getting shot to death by a "responsible" gun owner. A real American talks about blowing perps away in a Clint Eastwood drawl, punctuated with a Barney Fife *sniff*.

[Gravitycollapse]

14. The kid might be fucked in the head. Who knows what his future holds.

We don't even have a motive yet. It's a bad idea to start talking about "torture" even if it's institutionalized torture.

[liberalmuse]

17. What he did was unconsciable.

No human should have to live knowing that they tore apart human bodies and lives with a stupid decision. Not at 19, or any age. I just want to know what happened to this kid to make him hate so much, and get photographed smirking after he laid his bomb 3 fucking feet from an 8 year old kid and his mother. I want to know what he felt when he saw the blast and the havoc and human misery he helped wreak. I can't feel happy about this in any respect, but I didn't go through the shit the people of Boston have this week. I was safe in my home 5,000 miles away. The whole thing makes my heart rip. What punishment could we do to him that we wouldn't also be doing to ourselves? Vengence is pointless and only serves to diminish the souls of those who carry it out. Justice? There's no such thing. You can't bring back a child or a limb or the bliss in knowing you can excitedly cheer on the sidelines of a race without feeling the shards of a bomb penetrate your body.

[Gravitycollapse]

18. Vengence truly is pointless. That doesn't stop our legal system from living on it.

Or people from demanding that a 19 year old live in hell for the rest of his life.

It is sad. The greatest resistance to such violence is reformation. Or at least the attempt at reformation. What if 5, 10 or 20 years from now we have a changed man ready to go back out into the world and make a difference? That's true atonement.

[Bicoastal]

21. That's so, so, so very sad for the murderer to think about.

Now think about the friends and family of the victims for a second, and what they have to go through every day of THEIR natural lives. They've ALREADY been punished, and for no good reason.

So you can't pretend like a punishment doesn't exist as a result of this crime; it does, and the wrong people are serving it. Justice is making the murderer share their anger, grief, and emptiness--and since we have no way of reading a person's mind, that punishment must be accomplished through other, more humane means.

[Bicoastal]

12. Even you must admit there should be some crimes that rehab is not an option for.

He can't erase the fact that 4 lives have been needlessly lost and numerous people have been disfigured, no matter how sorry he is.

[Gravitycollapse]

13. No crimes should be out of consideration. I'm not, however, saying everyone can be rehabed.

[Bicoastal]

19. You have to draw the line somewhere--all the rehabbing in the world

...is not going to bring the victims back to life. And this was killing purely for the sake of killing.

Their families deserve the justice, the fairness, of knowing the murderer can't just approach them on the street one day 30 years later with tears in their eyes and an "I'm Sorry" Hallmark card. Some things can't be forgiven so easily.

[Gravitycollapse]

20. Isn't execution killing for the sake of killing?

That's a serious question.

[Bicoastal]

22. I'm anti-Death Penalty. nt

[Gravitycollapse]

23. Okay, isn't life imprisonment for the sake of suffering pointless?

Beyond pointless, is it not really a form of institutionalized evil?

Not being able to rehabilitate someone is one thing. Not wanting to try is something else entirely.

[Bicoastal]

24. See my above post. They must suffer humanely because their victims' families suffer inhumanely.

After all, how can those parents be rehabbed? If you lose a child in a senseless murder spree, I guarantee you you'll NEVER completely get over it.

[Gravitycollapse]

25. So what you're saying is that we should encourage healing through the suffering of others?

[Bicoastal]

27. Healing? In some cases, the victims' families aren't GOING to heal. Not 100%. Ever.

If I lost a child in that manner, I'd be offended if someone thought that some day I'd possibly be all better. So why should cold-blooded murderers--people who don't kill by accident or out of rage, but deliberately and with malice aforethought--even be given the opportunity to fix their broken lives? That's. Not. FAIR.

[justiceischeap]

3. I agree death for terrorists who think they get some reward for their terrorism

should never be on the table. It just makes them a different type of martyr.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. We don't know if this guy has a conscience or not.

Normal people assume that people who commit these heinous crimes feel guilty and suffer from remorse and sorrow. The guy might not have a conscience or feel any remorse for what he's done.

[dkf]

5. The worst punishment is if he regains his conscience and realizes what he did.

And he should hear from his uncle.

[DesertFlower]

6. i'd take death.

[Matariki]

7. where is that picture from?

[Bicoastal]

16. Google image search of a supermax prison cell...

No idea where it's from, but I think you get my drift.

[flamingdem]

8. And therapy so he realizes who his brother was and what life means to normal people nt

[dballance]

10. For me, I think life w/out parole (at 19) would be a fate worse than death

I think it's also a good point that if their particular ideology rewards them for dying for their god then we're just giving them what they want.

[HappyMe]

15. Premature, no?

They just got the guy alive a little while ago.

[FarCenter]

26. Execute and then gibbet, according to Boston's maritime tradition

Bird Island and Nix's Mate island in Boston Harbor were used for gibbeting pirates and sailors executed for crimes in Massachusetts during the colonial era. Their bodies were left hanging as a warning to sailors coming into the harbor and approaching Boston.

[edbermac]

28. It's a good start.

Four people dead, dozens maimed for life, I have no sympathy for this guy.