Monday, June 12, 2006

 

more on mental illness and sentences for murder...

nicholas hilt was facing charges of premeditated first-degree murder, felony murder, child rape and aggravated child abuse ... ugly, ugly stuff ... i will not recount the horrific details here but you can read about them in this chattanoogan.com on-line article ...

tcask has recently blogged about attempts to expand the death penalty for child rape as well as mental illness and capital punishment and this case brings both of these issues into play with a better than expected outcome...

hilt was sentenced to life without parole for the murder charge and will be sentenced August 29th on the rape and child abuse charges...

now the death penalty was on the table originally but prosecutor barry steelman decided ultimately not to pursue a death sentence...

why???

his office reports that they questioned his (hilt's) mental state...

good for steelman - the victim's family will be able to begin the long road to healing much sooner than if hilt had received a death sentence...

now, if we could divert the $$$ saved by steelman's decision into victim's counseling and other victim's services we might have the beginning of a better model of responding to such a horrendous crime...

peace out - <3
Comments : Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home