WI: Colombine shooters Stand Trial?

Death penalty. That is a special kind of evil. I don't care if they did have mental issues; they're getting death.

The thing is how the media would treat it. Columbine was one of those cases where Cable News cut its teeth. Pardon my ire here, but the cable channels exploited the murders for ratings, turned it into basically a TV movie, and focused on the murderers rather than their victims. I do blame the media making these kind of scumbags into antiheroes by doing that as the reason school shootings happen. They make celebrities, and these people with mental issues want to be celebrities. With Columbine, I think they would become like OJ in that they would be the dominating feature in news.
 

Pangur

Donor
Killing them would serve no purpose. They would be exposed as whack jobs in a trial and then cart them of to the nearest nut house for life.
 
Killing them would serve no purpose. They would be exposed as whack jobs in a trial and then cart them of to the nearest nut house for life.

Pretty much this. The scope and nature of their crimes are such that they are unquestionably tried as adults. They quite possible get a death sentence, but the judge commutes their sentence to a life term in a high security mental institution.
 
That's not the American justice system. If you do something that heinous, you are getting executed. I don't care if it's justice or revenge; you're getting executed.
 

Caspian

Banned
Harris gets the death penalty and is eventually executed - he was 18 when the massacre was committed.

Klebold is still in prison on a life sentence, his death sentence having been overturned in 2005 (assuming no changes result to Roper v. Simmons).
 

ThePest179

Banned
So what would be their defense in court, and would people come to different conclusions regarding the motive when the shooters spout their BS?
 

Tovarich

Banned
Death penalty. That is a special kind of evil. I don't care if they did have mental issues; they're getting death.

The thing is how the media would treat it. Columbine was one of those cases where Cable News cut its teeth. Pardon my ire here, but the cable channels exploited the murders for ratings, turned it into basically a TV movie, and focused on the murderers rather than their victims. I do blame the media making these kind of scumbags into antiheroes by doing that as the reason school shootings happen.

Emperor Norton I said:
They make celebrities, and these people with mental issues want to be celebrities. With Columbine, I think they would become like OJ in that they would be the dominating feature in news.

NO!!!
I make no apology for capitalisation and bolding there; those of us with psychiatric problems almost invariably want to shy away from the notice of others, and literally skulk in a corner hoping nobody can see us; the diametric opposite of seeking celebrity status!

For an explanation of US school shootings, you need to look at your own killer-worshipping culture, not conveniently blaming people with mental health issues......(and did the Columbine shooters have those anyway?!)
 
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Lateknight

Banned
NO!!!
I make no apology for capitalisation and bolding there; those of us with psychiatric problems invariably want to shy away from the notice of others, and literally skulk in a corner hoping nobody can see us; the diametric opposite of seeking celebrity status!

For an explanation of US school shootings, you need to look at your own killer-worshipping culture, not conveniently blaming people with mental health issues......(and did the Columbine shooters have those anyway?!)

Look up the case and those people had a slew of mental issues. Well it's true the vast majority of people with mental illness are more likily to the victim rather then the victimizer this isn't always true.
 

Tovarich

Banned
Look up the case and those people had a slew of mental issues. Well it's true the vast majority of people with mental illness are more likily to the victim rather then the victimizer this isn't always true.
Yeah, and that's a very different thing you've said there, LK, compared to what 'Norton said!

(Actually, I just noticed I did a similar thing, which I probably wouldn't have notied if not for your post; so thanks.)
 
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I think one of the reasons the pair are remembered today is because they were both relatively high functioning individuals. They got picked on a little in high school but had a circle of good friends, held after-school jobs and went on dates with girls. Though Harris was generally regarded as a nasty smart aleck, unpleasant to be around, Klebold was a little different. Klebold could sometimes come across as charming and shy. His prom date, if I recall correctly, described him as "cute."

So yeah, this means they're pretty much screwed. There wasn't much evidence of insanity before the attack, nothing they could use. Furthermore, they left copious journals and videos about planning the rampage. Both apologized to their parents, demonstrated they knew right from wrong and generally appeared "lucid."

With an insanity defense out, what can they do? See who wins the race to the DA's office, offering to plead to life without parole in exchange for testifying?
 

ThePest179

Banned
Bump this to ask:
What would they do with their newfound fame? Would many with misconceptions about the massacre and the shooters change their minds after witnessing them?
 

Caspian

Banned
Bump this to ask:
What would they do with their newfound fame? Would many with misconceptions about the massacre and the shooters change their minds after witnessing them?

Hah!

The shooters could tell everyone whatever they want - some people will refuse to believe them and substitute their own explanation, while many others won't even hear the given explanation. They'll blame it on Satan or gays or loud music or Doom, whatever their pet thing is.
 
I think one of the reasons the pair are remembered today is because they were both relatively high functioning individuals. They got picked on a little in high school but had a circle of good friends, held after-school jobs and went on dates with girls. Though Harris was generally regarded as a nasty smart aleck, unpleasant to be around, Klebold was a little different. Klebold could sometimes come across as charming and shy. His prom date, if I recall correctly, described him as "cute."
Whilst correct, I don't think this is a widespread perception at all. Klebold and Harris have pretty much come to embody the dysfunctional loner(s) tormented into a no-holds-barred, psychotic outrage. A hearing, although destined to be smothered by a morbid media circus that would put TTL's to shame, might do a lot to expunge the popular myth, if that really means anything.

This case is a death sentence before it even gets to trial, up there with Lee Harvey Oswald. I admire the humanity of those who would imagine an American judge relegating this particular pair to a psychiatric ward, but that's the sort of thing you get in Oslo, not Colorado, of all places.
 

fred1451

Banned
Pretty much this. The scope and nature of their crimes are such that they are unquestionably tried as adults. They quite possible get a death sentence, but the judge commutes their sentence to a life term in a high security mental institution.
If they are placed in a mental institution if their psyc's decide they are sane, either they are released, or they go on trail for the crimes.
 
Whilst correct, I don't think this is a widespread perception at all. Klebold and Harris have pretty much come to embody the dysfunctional loner(s) tormented into a no-holds-barred, psychotic outrage. A hearing, although destined to be smothered by a morbid media circus that would put TTL's to shame, might do a lot to expunge the popular myth, if that really means anything.

This case is a death sentence before it even gets to trial, up there with Lee Harvey Oswald. I admire the humanity of those who would imagine an American judge relegating this particular pair to a psychiatric ward, but that's the sort of thing you get in Oslo, not Colorado, of all places.


Yeah, I think you're right. Their association with the "trench coat mafia" clique at school didn't help this perception either. (The group pretty much threw the two under bus afterwards but that changed nothing.)

At the end of the day, these were two kids who were ready to die. What's more, they left a record behind documenting what they thought were their whys and hows. If the cops had stopped them early on (...instead of hanging around outside the school for hours....) a trial might have simply given one or the other a bully pulpit.
 
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