In Light of the Ariel Castro Story – Are You in Favor of Bringing the Death Penalty Back to NJ?

By Jeff Deminski

"I am not a monster," said the monster. Said Ariel Castro, the man who held three women captive, Amanda Berry among them, for nearly a decade. The man who repeatedly, for years, raped these women. The man who fathered a child, now 6, with Amanda Berry.

Amanda Berry escaped the home on May 6th of this year, leading swiftly to the freedom of the others and the arrest of Ariel By Castro and shocking the nation. Castro insisted he wasn't a monster. He was clearly a sociopath, and experts had hoped to study him for years to come. That hope is gone. Having pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence Castro was housed in solitary at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, south of Columbus, Ohio. He was in protective custody because of notoriety of his case. wenty three hours a day in his cell, and checked on every 30 minutes. He must have timed it just right. He was found hanged in his cell at 9:20pm Tuesday night and pronounced dead at 10:50pm at a hospital.

Unlike New Jersey, there's a death penalty in Ohio. He avoided it by accepting the plea. In the end, Ariel Castro had the wisdom we here in New Jersey seem to lack; that people like him shouldn't draw another breath. He did the right thing. He killed himself. If a killer himself can see the wisdom in this, why can't we?