Sniper Under Death Sentence

Mariel Graeber
#6
John Allen Muhammad Shot 13 people in 2006 and killed 10 of those. He is now on death row, he will be executed on November 10th by Lethal Injection. His attorneys wish him to be forgiven on a charge of mental illness but the charge was denied.
This is a form of social control because the death sentence is a punishment for committing certain crimes in the state of Virginia. Muhammad killed 10 people who were assassinated which is a word used when a public figure is shot and killed. The word in it's self holds great meaning and it would be interesting to see if the man killed 10 people if his sentence would have turned out differently. The man is pleading for mental illness which would place him under the medical model as a person who is sick but the jury is denying the claim and in doing so is marking him as bad and not sick. For the past 7 years this man has been in prison which is where criminals used to be held before they endured their actual punishment but now prison time is usually the actual punishment and not just a holding cell. This man may be better off with a death sentence rather than suffering in prison for life. But it is truly hard to say that it is justified to take a persons life away for murdering others. This type of punishment has been extremely controversial in almost every state because of these questions.
From: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/27/virginia.sniper.execution/index.html