Guilty as charged ... but now what?

So the second suspect in the Cheshire home invasion murders has been found guilty. My only question to the jury: What took you so long? Was the free food that good?

This has naturally kicked off discussion in the Nutmeg State about the death penalty, as since his co-conspirator has already been found guilty and sentenced to death, it's not a tremendous leap to extrapolate that he, too, will be condemned.

You'll note that I haven't given you their names. That's on purpose. Human beings who deserve dignity and respect get names. So they're clearly not eligible.

My initial thought when these crimes were committed (and if you're curious and/or you don't know, please go look it up somewhere else; I refuse to disrespect the victims by recounting or linking to the details of their deaths) is that the guilty deserve to die for what they did. Why? Because their crimes not only disrespected and ended three lives. They terrorized and scarred the entire state, your humble correspondent included. It was a sucker punch that left 3 million people dazed, frightened and sickened.

But before we schedule the execution tailgate party at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, there's this nagging little question: If they killed, and they are criminals and sinners for killing, what does make us for killing them?

As previously recounted in this space, the commandment does not offer a list of exceptions in which the taking of human life is acceptable. There's no wiggle room in "thou shalt not kill."

And it gets more difficult: Jesus directs to forgive not once or 7 times, but 70 times 7 times. And here I fall miserably short of the standard: I have serious doubts that I could forgive such creatures even once for committing such a crime against people I care about, never mind the remaining 139.

So what's my answer?

No. I won't lower myself to their bacterial level. Even though I truly believe they deserve it. Let them rot instead -- and then let an authority higher than the State of Connecticut determine the outcome. My guess? Where they're going, it's going to be very hot. All of the time.

As for the temporal realm: I'd be satisfied if they spent the rest of their lives in prison, but on one crucial condition -- that they remain in general population, with the worst and most sadistic murderers and gangsters, and not afforded any special status or protection from the guards.

After all, prisoners doing hard time have their own ways of meting out punishment.