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Apparent Suicide In Anthrax Case
penguin_dance passes along the news that a respected anthrax researcher, about to be indicted, has committed suicide. The FBI has been investigating the case since anthrax-contaminated letters were sent to the media and various politicians in 2001. The AP's coverage mentions that prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty. The suicide was not the one you might imagine if you've been following the story. "A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution... The extraordinary turn of events followed the government's payment in June of a settlement valued at $5.82 million to a former government scientist, Steven J. Hatfill, who was long targeted as the FBI's chief suspect despite a lack of any evidence that he had ever possessed anthrax."
Did you hear about the guy who stabbed a 22yo kid 40 times, cut his head off and showed it with pride to the other, horrified bus passengers? If it did happen in the US in a state that permits it, the guy would receive a simple injection and we'd be at peace. But since it happened in Manitoba, Canada, our laws will incarcerate this guy for a "life sentence", which means 25 years in prison with a possibility to be freed after 10 years upon good behavior.
I'd rather the option of the lethal injection in cases where it cannot be denied that someone commited murder. Life in prison is way too civilized in North America to make them really pay for their crime, adding the fact that they will make new "friends" who will help them with their future crimes... Another solution would be to send them to North Korean prisons, or Malaysian prisons.