Soccer Dad

Life-ing-stock

Say you're a political ambitious State's Attorney. You want to make a big splash. So what do you do when a high profile case gets prosecuted in a neighboring jurisdiction? Why you demand an oppportunity to try the suspect too, even if he's already been sentenced to death.
That's what Doug Gansler has done.
But this is where it gets weird (weird for me anyway)

Gansler said he decided to seek life without the possibility of parole for Muhammad -- who is charged with randomly killing six people in Maryland with a teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo -- because under Maryland law, prosecutors would have had a hard time obtaining the death penalty in the case.

Hard time obtaining the death penalty? Really. There's a woman named Sandra O'Connor who's retiring this year as State's Attorney for Baltimore County. One thing Ms. O'Connor was good at was identifying the aggravating circumstances that allowed for the imposition of the death penalty. My guess is that killing six people in cold blood would count as "aggravating." I bet if you asked Ms. O'Connor she'd be able to guide you.

You want to try him? Fine. But you're going to ask for a lesser penalty than the one he's already been condemned too? What's the point?

Gansler said his office consulted with relatives of the victims and was satisfied that seeking life in prison would satisfy all the interests in the case.

"We wanted to make sure the person who allegedly committed these crimes never roams our streets again," Gansler said. "Secondly, we wanted to provide an opportunity for the victims in this case to have their day in court."

Never roams our streets again? Earth to Gansler, Muhammad will have a date with a needle in Virginia. All you're doing is delaying that date.

Really, I hardly see what the point to trying Muhammad with the goal of sentencing him to jail for life. I really don't. It's a waste of time and resources. Had the goal been to sentence him to death, I could see perhaps the value of making an example of Muhammad even if Virginia would be the state to execute him. Muhammad is a particularly vicious killer, if you're looking for a standard punishment you're trivializing the enormity of his crime.

Technorati tags: snipers, death penalty, Doug Gansler.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 3, 2006 2:11 AM