[patsylimerick]

Originally Posted by Zippy

A civilised society has to take risks. Otherwise nobody would ever be released from prison or psychiatric hospitals!
Repeat offenders are constantly released time and time again; muggers, burglars, violent abusers,...even rapists. These are far more of a menace to society than somebody who has killed one specific person. Murder is usually a one off act that is never repeated. Which is why serial killers are so rare. Even if this boy were to be released now I think there's a good chance he would never kill again. And, no, Im not saying he should be released now! Point is, as extreme a crime his was its not something he would likely repeat over and over. Most murders are very specific; a personal conflict between individuals. Theyre not random.

I never said this boy will definitely be "fixed". But he is a young child and far far from being fully cooked. I never even had any rehabilitation myself but changed my attitude just through the process of simply growing up. With a child that age there are strong possibilies for growth and change. A civilised society would leave a door open for that to happen. Condemning him to life without parole is shutting every door and leaving him with no hope and nothing to improve himself for. And who benefits from that? Nobody. It's good if revenge is all you want but does sod all to address any other issues.

You seem to have missed the point I was attempting to make. You said it was BS to say that he couldn't be rehabilitated - well I think it's also BS to say he can. You and I don't know either way. Top quality psychiatrict assessment is the only way to establish the probability. BIB1, I didn't say you NEVER take risks; I said you don't take risks with psychopaths out of liberal sentimentality. In terms of rescidivism, I posted at length about exactly this earlier, you must have missed that.
BIB 2, if he's a psychopath, everybody benefits from him being shut away from society for the rest of his natural life - including him, by the way.