Mr. Robert W, described by prosecutors as a “deranged demon” who abducted, raped, brutally tortured and nearly murdered a Columbia University journalism graduate student in 2007, was sentenced on July 24, 2008 to 422 years in prison. The sentence was the maximum allowed by New York law. His victim was not in court at sentencing. He wrote a letter to prosecutors stating that he was “afraid to go out.” The victim narrowly survived her ordeal of being kidnapped, raped, cut with a butcher knife, scalded with boiling water, drugged to the brink of death, with her Krazy lips stuck together, and then left for dead tied to the living room couch. on fire . Mr. W attempted to opt out of the sentencing hearing, but was brought to the hearing by six helmeted state court officers. Mr. W had already spent most of his adult life in prison.

The prison is surely where Mr. W belongs and it seems like he went out of his way to make sure he would go back there for life.

Then there’s the story of Tremayne D, 36, of Portland, Oregon, who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after thirty years. Mr. D was sentenced for the murder of one Adam Calbreath, for a business deal gone wrong. Instead of going to trial, Mr. D availed himself of a very unusual plea deal offered by the prosecutor. He had been in jail for almost two years awaiting trial and missed the fatty food he liked to eat. So when the prosecutor offered him a fast food buffet in exchange for his guilty pleas, Mr. D admitted that he had shot Calbreath.

Their buffet offering included gorging on KFC and Popeye chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake, a pizza, two calzones, lasagna, and ice cream. The judge quickly signed the plea agreement and Mr. D drank the food in two places. The cost to Oregon taxpayers was just $ 41.70. A murder trial would have cost the state at least $ 4,000.

Without a doubt, this was a way to reduce crime.

Finally, there is the story of the Ohio killer who tried to avoid execution by claiming he was too fat for the state of Ohio to give him a lethal injection. Richard C, who at 5’5 ” weighed 267 pounds, was scheduled to die in October 2008. He had argued in numerous legal challenges that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to find suitable veins to administer the deadly chemicals, a problem that had delayed previous executions in the state. Mr. C, who had been convicted of the 1986 murders of two University of Akron students, spent 22 years on death row. Mr. C weighed 75 pounds more on the day of his execution than when he went on death row, as a result of the prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement. His execution took place in October 2008, without problem.

It seems that the prison chef was too good for Mr. C. One would think that prevailing wisdom would hold that one should lose weight on death row and not gain weight.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *