In Other News The University of Idaho Murders
Two years ago, before the Winter Break at University of Idaho, four students who lived just off campus were brutally murdered in their apartment. The alleged murder, Brian Kohlberger, who was a graduate student in Criminology at Washington State University was arrested shortly there after after he had returned to his family home in Pennsylvania over the break. Let's just say the evidence was pretty incriminating NBC Dateline has a special on what they had. Since the special may not meet the liable laws of the United Kingdom or the European Union, I am not providing a link.
Idaho is a death penalty state and the state was pushing for it, but the Kohberger lawyers were fighting it all the way.
Well, today, Kohberger accepted a plea deal offered by the state for four life sentences without possibility of parole or appeal. He accepted.
Needless to say, at least one of the victims' families is very upset.
Here is an AP summary report of the plea deal. https://apnews.com/article/kohberger-idaho-students-killed-91eeb98eebd3d9b007e4a5cae0f81030
Just posting it to keep those who were following the trial elsewhere informed.
Idaho is a death penalty state and the state was pushing for it, but the Kohberger lawyers were fighting it all the way.
Well, today, Kohberger accepted a plea deal offered by the state for four life sentences without possibility of parole or appeal. He accepted.
Needless to say, at least one of the victims' families is very upset.
Here is an AP summary report of the plea deal. https://apnews.com/article/kohberger-idaho-students-killed-91eeb98eebd3d9b007e4a5cae0f81030
Just posting it to keep those who were following the trial elsewhere informed.
Comments
I sent a note to one of the victims' family through Facebook. I told them I was very sorry for their terrible loss and unending grief. However, I thought a trail and death penalty would even be more traumatic not only for them, but for everyone involved in the trial. And every time he would make an appeal, it would only retraumatize everyone. I thought it would be the best for this monster (I used the term in the note to them} to be locked away for the rest of his life with no chance of appeal or probation. They will still have a chance to give him their all during the sentencing and to let him have it. They will continue to grieve for the rest of their lives I know.
North East Quine, Purgatory host
Question: Could there be a time when the death penalty should be the preferred option.
Do I know you personally?
Good point.
That's not an answer.
If someone I didn't know personally wrote to me at a time when I was suffering tremendous loss -- in public no less -- to offer me an opinion about what I should do, I would not be the least bit open to hearing them. I doubt you did anything but add to their pain.
Someone should say those things to them, but it should be someone they know really well.
Yes indeed. I am certainly against the death penalty, but it is beyond inappropriate to send a message to a stranger who is grieving to tell them why they're wrong.
First of all, this was on their facebook page. A number of pro and con messages were on their page, so I was not the first. They did encourage responses too.
Then too, I acknowledged the depth of their grief. And I did not specifically say they were wrong for wanting the death penalty. I just pointed out an alternative way of thinking through this tragedy. This morning CBS carried a report on this. They interviewed a father of one of the other victims who said he was relieved that his family will not have to go through a full trial and the continual appeals process if the court accepts the plea. And they interviewed the man whose Facebook page I responded to.
BTW--the judge handling the case has the option of rejecting the plea deal, but it very unusual. Could happen in this case because at least one of the families said they had not been consulted.
As Doublethink pointed out, the social media platforms foster a social familiarity between persons even when there is no direct contact between them. It happens even on this board. Ruth and I have argued many times over the years here, but we do not have any direct contact between us.
Personally, I would hope all the families involved will hire a media consultant for themselves to handle the firestorm of responses they are no doubt receiving.
Don't ever feel free to tell me what I should do in a painful situation. Ever.
Me neither. Nothing worse than pontifications from someone who's not suffering the same thing you are.
That said, as far as the Facebook page in question goes, I'll assume that @Gramps49 picked up the mood of the place well enough to know that his counsel would be welcome. Because at the end of the day, I can't prove otherwise.
I don’t think Facebook, where anyone can comment on a post*, is at all comparable in that regard. Where relationships are present on Facebook, they are, at least in my experience, almost always relationships that were formed and exist outside Facebook, with Facebook simply serving to facilitate communication within that relationship.
Social familiarity is not the same as relationship, and confusing the two is, I think, problematic.
* Facebook is about commenting on posts, not about discussion.