What should happen to someone who kills a child intentionally?

Question

In my state there have been at least 3 cases that made national headlines about mothers who murdered their children. In all 3 cases: Andrea Yates, Deanna Laney, and Dena Schlosser, they were all determined to be legally insane and were either acquitted and/or sent to a mental hospital.
Of course they were insane!! No sane person would kill their child!
Then you have people like Susan Smith and Darlie Routier, who are in prison either on death row or for life.
I just saw this website about a little girl who was killed by her dads girlfriend: http://www.codiaston.com

What is going on in these peoples heads??

What do you think should happen to these people who kill children? Nothing can bring these children back, but they deserve justice in some way.

By the way, if anyone goes to the website I listed, be prepared to cry your eyes out.

Aaron: You said almost exactly what I was thinking. If a person kills a child intentionally, be it their own or someone elses, how can we ever be sure that they won't do it again? Rehabilitation only goes so far, and then it doesn't work. Where is that point? I don't know. But I do know that I don't want these kinds of people walking around free where they could hurt my child. The excuse these women are giving about God telling them to do it, or whatever is just a load of crap. God didn't tell them to kill their kids, they are just freaking nuts. But I don't want these people allowed to be anywhere near my kids. It is no different with someone who drives drunk and kills someone. They should NEVER EVER be allowed to drive again. Why give them the chance to do it again? A child rapist also. They're called repeat offenders and it happens everyday. I don't want it happening with my kids. Remove them from society in one way or another. I dont care how, but I want them away from my kids.

Answer 1

I believe that in additon to jail time, they should be stopped from having any more children, ever, or at least have them removed unconditionally at birth. As a foster parent, what consistantly shocks me is the number of 'parents', if you can call them that, who abuse their children horrifically, and are then allowed to have more, while being "monitored". I can't believe that people are stupid enough to let this happen. Why should these people be allowed to move on with their lives when those little children don't even have a choice to have theirs? No, they should all serve time, in my opinion, they are not safe to let out again!

Answer 2

In some cases, as the multiple death of their own children, I think the death of the parent is also allowed. This puts an end to the relentless reminders we have of the survivors, whom are the murderers, as they've killed everyone else in their family.

Texas does seem to have quite a few mothers doing this. Our prisons are already overcrowded, sex predators should be surgically altered for life, and medicated, although the awful ones will find a way to inflict harm.

Strengthening the family, and family values as we can, and showing concern like this for these problems can help. I wish there were less disturbed people allowed in America, or treatment for these people in communities.
A community for SA, and monitoring.

The Yates case bothers me so much. I am sure she will someday be totally cured, although from the day I saw this I was traumatized, stopped taking baths, she is clueless as to the trauma she caused by her actions. I was so upset they let her go. Maybe her husband was overbearing, although there are ways to get help, and get by, and the judge Belinda something, was so pleased they didn't allow the death sentence..

Answer 3

Aye, an eye for an eye! That's the way it was, Maybe then people would start to think about their consequences. Right now children die and a woman can claim Post-partum Depression But although some of the problem maybe that, There's many more that use it as an excuse. Just as if God told them to, God said no killing! But if we want them to suffer: make them live the rest of their lives in a cold concrete room where they have pictures of the dead child covering every inch of the wall and a list of the Ten Commandments, let them have bread and water. but nothing more, don't let them out into the sunshine. No pillow, no blanket! Let them drown in the memory of the precious little life that misses out on EVERYTHING!! But I think The Parents of the child should decide what happens. That would be JUSTICE for ALL.

Answer 4

Very simply, such people must be destroyed. They must be put down like a rabid animal.

We should not torture them or otherwise harm them. We are simply acknowledging that whether it was due to mental illness or due to pure evil, they simply cannot exist in our society any longer.

In the case of someone like Andrea Yates, it is not that we hate her or wish her ill, it is simply an acknowledgement that something terribly, terribly wrong has went wrong inside her, and she cannot be trusted to ever live again among civilized people.

For those who are purely evil, we do wish them ill, but we still retain our civilized code and execute them with dignity. We can only hope that they go to hell, for death is as far as we can go. To do more (e.g., torture, etc.), is to lose our own souls in the process.

Very simply, kill a child intentionally and you must be removed from society forever. Certainly give certain ones a chance to get their affairs in order and make any peace they can, but they have to go, for we dare not trust them again. The price is just too high.

Very simply, that mental illness might show back up one day...perhaps 10 years down the road after they have moved to some distant city where no one knows them...and someone has asked them to babysit.

Same should be done for those who rape a child. I'm not talking about a 21-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. I'm talking about a CHILD. If you rape a child, you have to die. There is not rehabilitation that can ever make you a worthwhile member of society again. So you must simply be eradicated.

The only problem with this is that if a person raped a child and knew they were going to die for it, they would likely kill the child. I don't know the answer, but I know they have to die.

Answer 5

Although a lot of people won't agree...I believe in an eye for an eye. This makes me sick. The woman who hung her kids- the family that killed and raped the little boy who lived across the street, the little girl whose body that was dumped in a dumpster on their way to Vegas, the guy who beat the girlfriends little baby (while she was in Iraq), the guy who put the baby in the microwave...it goes on and on. It's a shame that just anyone can have a baby or be around kids at all. How sad that some babies will be born just to die at the hands of someone who doesn't deserve to live at all. The murderers need to be tortured, death is too good for them.

Answer 6

I believe they should go to prison for life, yeah they may be insane but they still commited a very brutal crime, all of those children deserved to live a full life, it breaks my heart to wonder what went through their minds when their mom did what she did. I hope that whatever tim they serve and no matter where they are placed I hope they think about what they did, honestly I am not one to say put someone on death row, but like I said before they commited a very brutal crime and their children suffered and they should too, those kids weren't insane and they had their life cut short, and those ladies do not deserve to live the rest of their lives'
I cannot imagine life without my little girls, I just do not understand WHY these ladies could do such a thing.

Answer 7

It sickens me when they claim there all insane. There not all insane some people Cheat and there new boyfriend doesn't want kids so they kill them. There was a story not too long ago that a woman carried her baby to full term and delivered it in the tub so her husband wouldn't hear and drowned the baby as soon as it came out. Then she put it in a trash can and put it in her trunk. Left it there for a while. Drove to a gas station and threw the baby in the restroom trashcan and proceeded to fill her car up and drive off. She wasn't insane. She didn't want her husband to know that she cheated cause they hadn't had sex in a long time and the baby was not his. She wasn't insane and she deserves to die. Then there was a woman that killed her baby that was over a year old because she said she couldn't go out and party with her friends anymore. There not all Insane!!

Answer 8

In is impossible to offer a blanket answer to such a complex question. There are conditions to consider...post-partum depression, PTSD, and so on. Again, CONDITIONS not EXCUSES.

These people should be put away in some form or fashion, either via prison or via psych institution. I am a believer in rehabilitation, however (the exception, I am sure) so I do not necessarily believe that there is no hope these sorts of criminals.

Answer 9

Its one thing to have severe severe post partum depression and another thing on the dad's girlfriend. Plus Andrea Yates husband appeared to be less than helpful in her situation and getting her any kind of help. He should have been charged also.

Answer 10

killing a child is certainly wrong, but perhaps the fact that we live in a country where women have a "CHOICE" to kill the baby that they, in all but rare cases (ie. rape), are responsible for conceiving (even if you aren't trying to get pregnant, choosing to have sex, even with protection, is choosing the possibility of getting pregnant) leads these women to think that is isn't such a big deal to kill their young children.