Shoutbox

There are two distinct approaches to criminal justice: punitive and rehabilitation.  The punitive approach takes the position of "eye for an eye", that the perpetrator must suffer at least equally to the suffering of the victim and this will somehow serve justice.  The rehabilitation approach takes the position that it doesn't matter as much what one did, it matters that we can be sure one won't do it again.  I am a strong supporter of the rehabilitation approach, and the two are usually mutually exclusive.  I do not believe in retribution -- sorry.

I also think we should differentiate between the actions of someone clearly less than sane and calculated, intentional actions of someone who knows exactly what they are doing.

Sweeney comes across to me as someone with serious mental problems.  I would suspect he is right on the brink of being certifyably insane.  If he was calculating his actions, he would have never done it the way he did.  Personally, I don't see a problem with any sentence he is given, provided his unsupervised release into society is subject to professional review.