Killer (Conclusion)

From my Weblog: http://icymarch.blogspot.com/?/2001_02_01_icymarch_archive.html

Killer (Part 2)

Update on my 1/30/01 post (see archives): The carjacker who murdered the woman is dead. (Sorry, no link to the story. The local paper's archives are down.) Hung himself with a bedsheet in his jail cell a couple nights ago. His mother is quite upset because she wanted them to put her son on a suicide watch. But the jailhouse psychiatrist who evaluated the kid didn't think it was necessary. The mother said when she spoke to her son that day in jail he was depressed, worried about what kind of punishment he was gonna get for his crime. He also said the guards were being mean to him. Now that her son is dead, she will most likely sue the city.

Now I'm not such a heartless bastard that I jumped up and cheered when I read the news, but I'm not crying for the guy either. Yeah, realizing that you may get the death penalty, or at best life in prison, since you were caught literally red handed after stabbing an old lady to death can be quite upsetting, I guess. Jailhouse guards tend to take a certain amount of sadistic pleasure in harassing even petty criminals, it's one of the few perks of the job. I can imagine the trash they'd talk to someone who'd just killed somebody's grandma...

Still, it's a pretty sad story. The kid was a diagnosed schizophrenic, and his mom said she did try to have him committed some time prior to the whole carjacking incident. But since he was no longer a minor, she din't have any legal authority to do it. And since he didn't want to commit himself, he was out loose on the streets, scheming of a way to get money. He claimed he didn't want the car, just wanted to rob the woman, get some money to make a new start in Las Vegas, as if that somehow justified it. I guess that alone proves he wasn't sane.

But there are quite a few people in jail that are mentally unbalanced to one degree or another. And some people (other than those who view being arrested as a badge of honor among their peers) can get quite depressed after being arrested. That's why they take away your belt and shoelaces in most jails. If they took away the prisoners blankets and sheets, though, I'm sure the ACLU would complain.

My guess is the kid didn't act suicidal while being evaluated, that's why the prison psychiatrist passed him. He was probably still playing the "tough guy". (remember, this is the kid who after being caught said: "She wouldn't take me seriously. So I stabbed the f---ing bitch." ) Most likely, after sitting in the cell for a while, the reality of what he'd done finally hit him and he cracked...

Some people might like to believe that he killed himself because he felt so horrible about taking an innocent woman's life. Those of a Christian nature may even want to believe that he may have begged God for forgiveness for taking her life and his own, so that he might be "saved" upon his death. Those of a more cynical nature may think that he only killed himself because he didn't have the balls to face the trial, and the very real possibility of having to take that long walk to the lethal injection room...

I don't really know what the kid was thinking as he was hanging from that sheet. Since I'm an agnostic who doesn't buy that whole "forgiveness, redemption, go to heaven" idea, I don't think it matters all that much to him now, either. (Although I think his mother would feel better if she knew he felt some kind of remorse for his actions.) In my opinion though, in his last act he did the witnesses and the woman's family a favor. Now that he's gone they won't have to relive the event in a public trial. At least they have closure.

posted by cy at 10:01 PM 2/11/01