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Yes. I know I can find some compassion.
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Yes. I know I can find some compassion.
Overall, I probably have substantially more compassion for the specific victim who was affected by the specific perpetrator but there is a piece of me that considers what allowed this person to commit this crime? What influenced this guy to do it in the first place?
A normal person does not kidnap, rape and murder a nine year old girl. What is the abnormality that has influenced a person to commit a series of acts so awful? Is it a chemical imbalance? Is it a reaction to societal treatment real or imagined? It has nothing to do with getting his rocks off. Anyone can do that themselves. There is something that made him think that this was something he had to do and that is where my compassion is steered. Wondering what experience this person had that influenced them to want act in this manner.
Just because I can feel some compassion for a criminal doesn't mean I can't feel more for the victim.
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Consider this - In most U.S. prisons, there is a pecking order. Child molesters, child rapists, Child murderers = Anybody that injures a child, is considered very low, even compared to a convicted killer or other violent felon.
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Consider this - In most U.S. prisons, there is a pecking order. Child molesters, child rapists, Child murderers = Anybody that injures a child, is considered very low, even compared to a convicted killer or other violent felon.
When this guy goes into prison, he may very well have to watch his back lest he find a home - made knife in it. I'm merely going on what I've read & heard about life inside the penal system. He may spend his prison term looking over his shoulder & fearing for his life.
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Compassion is the only way, imagine that man as a 5 year old boy, and what he must have gone through in his life. I can feel compassion for him.
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That is kind of what the word really means.
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That is kind of what the word really means.
the Norwegians seem to be pretty good at it.
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I once didn't think I could, but I was placed in a circumstance where I had to treat a serial killer in a dignified manner. I had married this person when I was 18. The marriage was only 20 minutes long and not consummated when his mother said she would go to that chapel and stop the paperwork from being sent in.She was going to annul my marriage to her son. I was never to see him again. I left their house and went my separate way in my life. I remarried (without having divorced the first guy). He went into the Army and Viet Nam. He was in and out of prisons for sex abuse of little boys. I would not be friendly with him, but his mother was like a second mother to me and I loved her. I would do anything for the dear sweet woman. Well, 15 years went by and the man I had married at 18 was arrested as a serial killer. He went to San Quentin State Prison's Death Row. In 1996 orders were cut for his execution. His mother was torn apart. His stepfather had a heart attack and would soon die. On the week of the execution the stepfather's health was such that no one in the family was going to attend the execution. They stayed by the stepfather's bedside as he died. It was pointed out that we were still married and the man listed me as his wife. I went to the prison to witness the execution. Before I could visit I was counseled by the Visitors House on how the inmate was to be treated with respect and dignity at all times. One outburst and I would not be allowed to visit, or witness. I visited him. I was quiet and respectful of the inmate's rights. I bought us meals and spent the last weeks of his life talking with him and listening to him. I dug into my heart to find my compassion. I have to admit, even knowing what his crime was, there was still a part of my heart that loved the boy of long ago that I had married. He was no longer that charismatic teen ager, but I could see the charming boy inside the killer sitting with me. The love was still alive.
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I once didn't think I could, but I was placed in a circumstance where I had to treat a serial killer in a dignified manner. I had married this person when I was 18. The marriage was only 20 minutes long and not consummated when his mother said she would go to that chapel and stop the paperwork from being sent in.She was going to annul my marriage to her son. I was never to see him again. I left their house and went my separate way in my life. I remarried (without having divorced the first guy). He went into the Army and Viet Nam. He was in and out of prisons for sex abuse of little boys. I would not be friendly with him, but his mother was like a second mother to me and I loved her. I would do anything for the dear sweet woman. Well, 15 years went by and the man I had married at 18 was arrested as a serial killer. He went to San Quentin State Prison's Death Row. In 1996 orders were cut for his execution. His mother was torn apart. His stepfather had a heart attack and would soon die. On the week of the execution the stepfather's health was such that no one in the family was going to attend the execution. They stayed by the stepfather's bedside as he died. It was pointed out that we were still married and the man listed me as his wife. I went to the prison to witness the execution. Before I could visit I was counseled by the Visitors House on how the inmate was to be treated with respect and dignity at all times. One outburst and I would not be allowed to visit, or witness. I visited him. I was quiet and respectful of the inmate's rights. I bought us meals and spent the last weeks of his life talking with him and listening to him. I dug into my heart to find my compassion. I have to admit, even knowing what his crime was, there was still a part of my heart that loved the boy of long ago that I had married. He was no longer that charismatic teen ager, but I could see the charming boy inside the killer sitting with me. The love was still alive.
In all of my life and 5 marriages, I have only been in love twice in my life. I loved the man that was my late husband (Lowell Henry) and I loved the teenaged boy who brightened my high school years -- the now soon to be executed inmate, who is a serial killer of 44 young men and boys. I sat with him on his last day. His last meal was a large pizza, Pepsi, and coffee ice cream. He gave me a slice of his pizza and a Pepsi. I could not swallow. I was terrified and already starting the grief process. I was taken in to be one of the many witnesses for his lethal injection. He was the first inmate in California to receive death by lethal injection. The press coverage was thick. Afterward, I followed the van with his body in it and made the arrangements to have him cremated. I also had Spirit Cruises take me out to the 5 mile line still within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge where I dumped his ashes. I didn't scatter them, I dumped them --- without prayers or tears. I saved my tears for when I held his mother in my arms while she cried for her son's death and the death of her husband, which occurred on the same day.
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I say it isn't wrong to have compassion for someone because of their actions. It may be the only thing to change a person. The man is mentally ill. Society has produced him.
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you're in the hoppin' metropolis of woodstock too? small world...
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you're in the hoppin' metropolis of woodstock too? small world...
i wouldn't say i feel compassion for him (except that i don't support the death penalty, as so many around here suddenly do), but it would certainly be interesting to find out what makes him tick. it would simply be out of curiosity, though - i don't think people like that can be rehabilitated, nor can these kinds of crimes be prevented. there will always be sick f***s out there.
i'm just glad he was convicted. i'm sure most of the missing children you see on the posters suffered a similar fate as tori, and the perpetrators are still walking free among us.
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It's not wrong -- the thinking person must rise above the emotion of the moment -- look toward an understanding of the factors that created the tragedy in order to seek early intervention so that it does Not happen to another victim. Otherwise the same conditions that gave rise to this beast will give rise to others.
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I do not think you are wrong at all for feeling compassion for someone who has committed this kind of crime. It is so easy to pass judgement on others when you only see the crime they committed. I am in no way saying that what he did was right but I do think it's something that people need to try and understand.
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I do not think you are wrong at all for feeling compassion for someone who has committed this kind of crime. It is so easy to pass judgement on others when you only see the crime they committed. I am in no way saying that what he did was right but I do think it's something that people need to try and understand.
Nothing in this world is black and white and this is not news to anyone. I believe that a person like that can work through their sh*t and one day be a changed person. Even if a person doesn't believe people can't change this doesn't make it true. Whatever this person's issues are, they are deep rooted and they so clearly need help.
Is it possible for people to put aside their anger and fear towards a person like this and allow them to try and change? I'd like to think that if anyone else was to do something very wrong and was caught for it that they would want a chance at redemption... I'm not saying let them be free in the world to do that, there are consequences for every action and it's important for people to understand that. As the saying goes, "An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind." If we can't apply this to ourselves, how are we any better?
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You're either more human than I am or less human than I am. It depends on whether it's human to feel compassion for some sick, twisted individual. I definitely don't.
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HELL NO This man probably consciencely hurt this child and then killed the child to cover it up. He knew what he was doing was wrong. There should only be outrage and severe punishment so that no other parent would suffer knowing their child was raped and killed by a monster. Send a message "let it be known that if you hurt a child in our community by your cowardly way of dealing with your past you too will suffer worse than anything you could possibly imagine. Get help before we get our hands on you you sick cowardly b******s"
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