Comment by ryandvm
2 years ago
Of course - this entire thread is nothing but speculation.
That said, the premeditated murder of someone, let alone your wife and children's mother, is not something that the average person is capable of. It is entirely different than the crimes one may commit out of rage, fear, or passion (i.e. when your amygdala is driving).
I don't believe in capital punishment or lesser forms of punitive justice, but I have a hard time believing that psychopaths can ever be meaningfully rehabilitated. They are just humans that shipped with a fucked up firmware and that's all there is to that.
The letter reads like Reiser thinks the firmware bug is fixable, and it’s more a case of nurture over nature. Don’t know if that’s true, but it’s not unthinkable.
I think murder has an exceptionally low recidivism rate mainly because if you do get out of prison after serving your time you probably don't want to do it again, and you might never be put in a situation where you need to do it again.
I wonder if it's just that people are old by the time they get out.
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I've certainly encountered the opposite - folks who probably would have lived healthy productive lives, but were subject to some terrible event during some formative time and negatively impacted by it.