The kind of guy even prisoners look down on.
A 34-year-old Laurel man serving consecutive life sentences for killing his two toddlers after initially telling police a carjacker drove off with them was found dead in a prison shower over the weekend, authorities said today.
Richard W. Spicknall II was found unresponsive in the shower at the
maximum security Jessup Correctional Institution around 7:40 p.m.
Saturday evening, Maryland Department of Correctional Services
spokesman Mark Vernarelli said. He said rescuers’ attempts to revive
him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The only thing that tells me, is that if we can’t keep someone alive in prison (which ultimately has to be our goal regardless of what the person has done), we can’t EVER reduce the risk of terrorism in this country by the measures that the Bush administration wants to adopt.
Think about it… in prison you have the perfect surveillance society, each and every member can be monitored at all times, all mail can be read, all conversations recorded… but we can’t keep weapons out. We can’t keep drugs out. And we can’t keep inmates alive.
These “Karma’s a bitch” type killings that occur in our prisons are a fraud. They are endorsed by a society that likes to believe that even murderers have standards and that killing another prisoner is simply an expression of those standards. They are enabled by prison officials who know that no one is going to look too deeply into these kinds of prison crime.
The fact is, this creep was sentenced to a term in prison. He wasn’t sentenced to be murdered by fellow inmates. Those fellow inmates were sentenced to a term in prison. They weren’t put there to carry out extra-legal executions for our smug satisfaction.
Do bad stuff and bad stuff happens.
Oliver, by this logic you might just as well embrace all kinds of “sudden justice”, like abortion-clinic bombings, because “bad stuff” is a very broad undefined term.
Maryland has the death penalty. The judicial system, by due process, found Mr. Spicknall guilty. If he had been sentenced to death, he would have been killed by the state of Maryland.
In this country, there’s a word for what happened there: murder. As soon as you lower the bar on this all kinds of bad things happen. When the police kill a african-american man who tried to burglarize a home, does “bad stuff” still apply? If you’re an Iraqi beat to death by sadistic CIA interrogators, does “bad stuff” still apply?
Sometimes you really seem to drop the ball. Just like here: http://www.oliverwillis.com/2006/08/civil_war_you_s.html when you only counted “7 people”. wtf?!
I’m sorry but I’m not going to shed a tear for the death of a convicted murderer of two little children. Of course it’s murder, and the guy who was murdered deserved it.
Well, I’m not shedding any tears over the bastard either, but that’s a far cry from celebrating the way that he met his maker. If something like this can happen to him in the prison system it can – and does – happen to people far less deserving of such a fate.
Two things here. 1. The guy was a jerk. 2. The prison failed to do its job. Would have been better for the State to have executed the guy rather than just unleash the barbarians on him.
Prisoners often kill other prisoners like Spicknall to enhance their own reputation. It’s almost superstitious — the killer is attempting to “capture the killer’s spirit.”
Prisoners make no pretense to law enforcement.
BTW, Joh, you might view keeping prisoners alive as a crucial goal of imprisonment, but most CO’s have no problem turning a blind eye to one inmate killing another.
There is absolutely no relation between this incident and the War on Terror.
Dual infanticidist murdered in prison. So the hell with him.
Nimrod is on record as supporting the death penalty?
Of course it’s murder, and the guy who was murdered deserved it.
What if this murder happens outside of prison? Should the police not investigate the deaths of bad people?
While the murder of the innocent makes the front pages I would surmise that a large percentage of the victims of murder are people no better really than the murderer. Should the police not investigate the murder of drug dealers?
Where do we draw the line and decide the victim deserved the fate?
The fact that our prisons are lawless jungles is a huge problem.
No matter the crime for which they are convicted when someone is sentenced to prison they are sentenced to prison. They are not sentenced to being beaten and raped.
To condone this type of prisoner on prisoner violence is very simply to condone torture.
And for your Zen paradox of the day I imagine that calling Bad Karma on someone is itself Bad Karma and it is probably Bad karma for me to point that out.
Reminds me
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s shocking remarks about Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron Corp.: “I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, ‘Hi my name is Spike, honey,’ “
No, I hate the death penalty. But still, double infanticidist gets killed in prison, the hell with him.
His prior bad acts do not mitigate our bad act. This is not ok.
Creep or not, the guy was sentenced to two life sentences, not one death sentence. The comment about “karma” is tasteless and betrays a vigilante mindset. Nobody deserves to be murdered.
1. I support the death penalty
2. I’m glad this guy is dead
3. The person who killed him is a murderer and should should be tried for murder
4. I’m still glad this guy is dead
Is that clear?