How do you kill two women, go to jail for each offence and get out to do it again?

[Burney]

Hard to think of a worse indictment of the penal system.

https://twitter.com/aboosalik/status/948477731825766400

That said, you have to wonder if victim number three knew about victims 1 & 2 and figured she could change him, don't you?

[Sir C]

Hard to think of a worse indictment of the penal system.

https://twitter.com/aboosalik/status/948477731825766400

That said, you have to wonder if victim number three knew about victims 1 & 2 and figured she could change him, don't you?

"Johnson has two previous manslaughter convictions, for pushing his wife over a balcony in 1981 and strangling a partner in 1993."

One also wonders how pushing someone over a balcony is manslaughter rather than murder. Ditto strangling someone to death.

How bizarre.

[Burney]

"Johnson has two previous manslaughter convictions, for pushing his wife over a balcony in 1981 and strangling a partner in 1993."

One also wonders how pushing someone over a balcony is manslaughter rather than murder. Ditto strangling someone to death.

How bizarre.

They were manslaughter because he was prepared to cop a plea to manslaughter and everyone was happy to let him get a lighter sentence rather than go to all that boring hassle of trying the murdering bàstard for what he'd actually done.

[Luis Anaconda]

Hard to think of a worse indictment of the penal system.

https://twitter.com/aboosalik/status/948477731825766400

That said, you have to wonder if victim number three knew about victims 1 & 2 and figured she could change him, don't you?

snigger - you said penal

[PSRB]

Hard to think of a worse indictment of the penal system.

https://twitter.com/aboosalik/status/948477731825766400

That said, you have to wonder if victim number three knew about victims 1 & 2 and figured she could change him, don't you?

Once is unfortunate, etc, etc.

[Burney]

Once is unfortunate, etc, etc.

You'd think, wouldn't you? You'd think some bright spark might have said to themselves 'Hmmm, this fellow killed one partner, got out and promptly killed another. Perhaps we ought to wonder if there is some sort of pattern here?'

[Luis Anaconda]

You'd think, wouldn't you? You'd think some bright spark might have said to themselves 'Hmmm, this fellow killed one partner, got out and promptly killed another. Perhaps we ought to wonder if there is some sort of pattern here?'

I see he is being described as a serial killer. I suppose technically three is a series but I can't help thinking we are setting the bar a bit low there

[Burney]

I see he is being described as a serial killer. I suppose technically three is a series but I can't help thinking we are setting the bar a bit low there

Given that he pushed his wife off a balcony, la, I think the phrase 'setting the bar a bit low' in this context is in somewhat dubious taste.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

And what about that inveterate ****-stain Ian Huntely, the Soham murderer.

I'll never forget the palpable discomfort of the senior policeman who had to inform a press conference that Huntley had fourteen previous contacts with various police forces all involving predatory sexual behaviour with under age girls.

[Burney]

And what about that inveterate ****-stain Ian Huntely, the Soham murderer.

I'll never forget the palpable discomfort of the senior policeman who had to inform a press conference that Huntley had fourteen previous contacts with various police forces all involving predatory sexual behaviour with under age girls.

It does seem to me that there is a tendency to forget that the criminal justice system is not simply there to punish and/or reform, but to protect the public from dangerous individuals.

Not enough consideration is given to recidivism, for instance. For years I parroted the standard liberal line on the death penalty about it being better that 1,000 guilty men go free than that one innocent man be executed, but came to realise that it's *******s, since it ignores the fact that when those guilty men go free (or are released from prison after 10-15 years) innocent people invariably die as a result. A simple utilitarian calculation should tell you therefore that the greatest good for the greatest number is served by the death penalty.

That said, I still find the idea of living in a country that practises the death penalty rather distasteful, so remain ambivalent on then subject.