State-ordered suicide?

There was a small but very provocative one-paragraph article in The Kansas City Star yesterday about a man who "fatally shot two children and wounded a third as they sat in a gas station parking lot."

The man had been found guilty and made it clear he wanted to be executed for these crimes.

It happened in far-right wing Oklahoma so you'd think it would be a foregone conclusion that they'd grant his wish, wouldn't you?

But no.

The judge came to the contrary, rather extraordinary and, to me, surprising conclusion that "the death penalty for a man who asked to be executed" would be "akin to 'state-ordered suicide'."

The judge gave him 3 life terms--but only 2 without parole--instead.

Hmmmm.

That is pretty remarkable.

This could be the basis of discussion for an ethics class into the next century, I should think.

Really, this is pretty fascinating.

Three things seem true here:

First, my initial reaction was that I thought the guy should absolutely be executed since a) he killed people (children, in fact, making it more gruesome and ugly) and b) he requested being killed.

Secondly, I think it's doubtful that this guy intentionally murdered these children with the plan of being killed by the state. Possible, sure, but not likely.

Finally, if the judge is thinking of keeping other would-be murderers from doing this--creating their own state-sponsored suicide--I just can't see very many people lining up to doing such a thing. I mean, I just don't see some large group of people thinking they'll go out and gruesomely kill others, just so they can be executed by the state. If the judge thinks he's running a deterrent here, with his ruling, I think he's mistaken.

So, while I'm against the death penalty, per se, this may be a case where the guy did the crime, requested his own execution and it seems difficult to me not to grant his request. And that's the conclusion I would have come to but it's said that the guy's sister "would have testified that his childhood was riddled with physical abuse, sexual trauma, poverty and religious indoctrination at the hands of his father." He's also said to be psychotic and that he hears "messages from God."

Yeah, this is a tough one, not cut-and-dried, so to speak, at all.

I go for not granting his wish but who knows? You'd sure have to have a lot of information to call this one.