Paroled killer Charles Doucette facing new charges
SALEM - Authorities say a convicted killer paroled in 2007 is facing new charges of assaulting his girlfriend.
The charges against 51-year-old Charles Doucette of Beverly are drawing renewed criticism of the state’s parole system, which came under fire when a parolee serving three life sentences killed a veteran Woburn police officer.
Brad asked if this would induce a rage-o-meter. I thought about it for a bit, and decided that, sadly, it wasn't all that rageworthy. I mean, after all:
1. He served 15 years on a second degree murder charge - for MA, that's gotta be a record;
2. It took him nearly four years to screw up again - once again, that's pretty amazing; and
3. At least he served more time than Louise Woodward (who was also convicted of second degree murder)...
The fact is, we don't put violent killers away for anywhere near long enough. It's not just Massachusetts, either - there's stories like this all over the country. In a backwards way, it's one of the reasons I support the death penalty for the most vicious killers out there. Because there is no such thing as life without parole in a lot of places, there's always a chance that some psychopathic maniac will be released in 15/20/25 years once the horror of their crimes has faded and folks have forgotten the savagery.
If we had an honest-to-goodness life in prison without the possibility of parole - and the option of seclusion should the prisoner prove to be too violent among the general population - I could relinquish my support of the death penalty. If we could guarantee that someone like Charles Manson would never come up for parole, if we could actually keep these monsters locked away, if there were actual punishment for these horrific crimes; then prison might mean something, and we'd be taking the worst of the worst off the street and keeping them locked up. There would be no need for the most final of solutions.
Since, for a variety of reasons, we cannot - or will not - sentence even the most violent criminals to actual life in prison, I have no choice but to support the death penalty. I don't like giving the state this option - we've seen over and over how badly the state can screw things up six ways to Sunday - but for cases where guilt is excruciatingly clear, it should be on the table at least. Unless and until we can guarantee the good, honest, peaceable folks that violent criminals will not walk out of prison after serving a fraction of their sentence, then we need to have the sword of Damocles available.
That and an armed populace - hence the DGC...
That is all.
4 comments:
At a minimum, receiving multiple life sentences should automatically trigger the death penalty. If someone is that dangerous and evil, we just need to remove them from society permanently, and with as little fuss as possible.
And really, what's the point of slapping on another life sentence or two? At most, they'll still die of old age in prison, and it doesn't have any effect on eligibility for parole. It's like multiple death sentences: "We're going to kill you twice." There's no point.
I only like life without parole if they are put to work to pay for their incarceration.
I don't feel like paying for some horrible people to sit on their fat asses all their lives.
I'm trying to figure out how to pay for me to sit on my fat ass the rest of my life.
I'm surprised they kept him for 15 yrs, normally it's 3-4 years and out... As we all know, the amount of recidivism is pretty damn high, especially for killers and child molesters. sigh...
That was the only thing I really loved about Virginia. No parole. Life in prison = life in prison.
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