Does the name Anders Behring Breivik mean anything to you? He has served half of a 21 year sentence in a Norwegian prison in a “spacious” three room cell playing video games. He got there because he got the maximum sentence for murder in Norway. He recently had a parole hearing at which he gave the Nazi salute upon arrival and said he would continue his fight for Naziism; albeit peacefully, if he got out. Thankfully, he did not.
Will he get out when he has served the whole 21 years? We’ll have to stay tuned but I certainly hope not. Why am I so hard on this guy? Because if the name hasn’t yet rung a bell with you, let me help. In 2011 he killed eight in an Oslo bombing and then stalked and gunned down 69 more people; mostly teens, at a summer camp.
Is there a chance he will actually get out after he has completed his sentence? If Norway had the death sentence we wouldn’t have to worry about that. But they do not. In 10 more years maybe the memory of his awful deeds will be a bit more faded and a sympathetic parole board could let him out.
Sympathetic parole boards have; in my view, made many questionable decisions over the years. If Utah abolishes the death penalty, will we have to worry about lunatics getting paroled? I do not like the death penalty. It is barbaric. But unless “life” actually means “life” in prison without (really) the possibility of parole, I cannot support the abolition of the death penalty in Utah.
Ralf Henkel, South Jordan
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