California Train Crash
Yesterday a man planned to commit suicide by parking his Jeep on some railroad tracks. Before the train reached him, he changed his mind and fled the vehicle because he was unable to move the vehicle that was now stuck on the tracks. The result was a train wreck that killed eleven and injured hundreds. The question today is if he should be charged with murder and then have the death sentence pursued as punishment.
First of all I think this man should and will be charged with eleven counts of first degree murder. He planned to kill himself and he in acted a plan to do so, and if it killed others he was not concerned. That shows both for thought, planning and malice towards others. To me that raises to the level of first degree murder.
With that said, the only question left is should the DA pursue the death penalty. I am personally a strong supporter of the death penalty and think if it was used more often it would be a more viable deterrent to crime. However, in this case I am in favor of life in prison without parole.
Why you ask? Simply this man wants to die and giving him the death penalty gives him what he wants. He needs to suffer long and hard in prison. He does not deserve to die peaceful in prison via lethal injection. He needs to spend every day of the rest of life thinking about how he destroyed the lives of eleven families and his life should be filled with days of him thinking about how much he should have died himself and how weak of a person he is for fleeing.
Suicide takes no strength, it is a selfish act of a weak person. All it does is hurt the ones that you love you and that you leave behind. It does not make you any better off and it does not solve any problems, it just creates new ones of those left behind. The only thing weaker then suicide is deciding not to kill yourself and allowing others to die as a result of your selfish and weak attempt. This man needs to live with his weakness every day of the rest of his life and die a old, gray man behind the walls of the California prison system.
Justice here is 11 guilty counts with 11 consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole.
