Fritzl sentenced to life in prison in incest case

[Damen]

Life, but is it justice?

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_eu/eu_austria_fritzl_trial

Fritzl sentenced to life in prison in incest case
36 mins ago

ST. POELTEN, Austria – A jury has convicted Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl of homicide and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a secure psychiatric facility.

Fritzl also was convicted of enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion for holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

Fritzl accepted Thursday's verdicts and waived his right to appeal.

The homicide count — "murder by neglect" in German — was the most serious of the charges against 73-year-old Fritzl, and the jury gave him the maximum punishment allowed by law.

The verdict brought a dramatic end to a case that has drawn worldwide attention.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ST. POELTEN, Austria (AP) — A jury has convicted Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl of homicide for the death in captivity of one of seven children he fathered with the daughter he imprisoned for 24 years.

Jurors did not immediately pronounce a sentence Thursday, but Fritzl faces up to life imprisonment for the charge

A "secure psychiatric facility." Not prison. A funny farm. How is this justice? Or even punishment? Instead of going to prison where he belongs, he's going to a place with rubber walls and a lot of doctors wanting to know if mommy ever touched him.

Granted, he's about as loony and evil as you can get, but he's about to die. Why bother with the doctors and rubber walls when all there is that's left isn't correcting his insanity but atonement for his crimes? I'm sorry, I know it's life for him and he'll never again breath free air, but I still find this to be an injustice all the same.

A bit of personal irony in this? I'm a staunch believer that a prison should be there for reform, not punishment. That's just how horrible I find this story to be.

[Mantorok]

He's going to a secure psych ward. That's not much different from a prison. I get that he's seen as a monster, but a psych ward isn't all sunshine and lollipops.

[szaleniec]

He's not getting out is the main thing. Anything less than life would have been unjust.

[Caitshidhe]

As Mantorok said, mental asylums are NOT all rainbows and butterflies. They're prisons. Possibly even worse than prisons. I imagine the decision to put him into a psych hospital was for his own safety--the case was so highly publicized and everybody knows who this man is, and putting him into a regular prison would be dangerous because the other inmates would go after his wobbly old ass with prison shanks. (Not that I would object to this happening, because frankly he deserves it for what he did.) Anyway, the sentencing and everything is just on principle. A life sentence for this man is ten years--fifteen at the outside. It's good that he's going to pay A LITTLE BIT for his crimes, but it isn't going to equal a fraction of what he did to his daughter and the children he fathered.

[malicious_bloke]

Mar 19, 2009 11:03:27 GMT -5 Caitshidhe said:

It's good that he's going to pay A LITTLE BIT for his crimes, but it isn't going to equal a fraction of what he did to his daughter and the children he fathered.

Yes. To be honest there isn't ANYTHING that you could do to him that would equal what he did to them. I've been involved in discussions about this twat on several other forums, and it always seems to involve people indulging their sadistic side fantasising about bloodthirsty "punishments" they would like to inflict on him. IMO that kind of bull is just pointless savagery.

TBH, he will never again be in a position to harm his victims or anyone else. That should be the end of the matter.

[Caitshidhe]

I know it should just be the end of the matter now that he's gone to court and received his sentence from the law--but prison time (or mental hospital time) just seems so inadequate a punishment for him. It's only human to want revenge, but nothing else can--or should--be done to him aside from his sentence. But that doesn't stop me from hoping he ends up on the wrong end of a prison shank.

[Sandafluffoid]

What is the point of punishment? It's to make someone realise that they are wrong and stop them from doing it again. Fritzil is insane and no amount of punishment is going to convince him that he was wrong; he genuinelly seemed to think he was acting out of love for his grand/children. We shouldn't go down the route of punishing him just to make ourselves feel better, he probably won't live long enough to be 'cured', if he even is curable. Letting him go isn't an option he's dangerously insane, and conventional prison punishment just isn't going to work on him, frankly a phsychiatric facility is the only fair and sensible thing to do.

[MozMode]

Mar 19, 2009 12:40:51 GMT -5 Sandafluffoid said:

What is the point of punishment? It's to make someone realise that they are wrong and stop them from doing it again. Fritzil is insane and no amount of punishment is going to convince him that he was wrong; he genuinelly seemed to think he was acting out of love for his grand/children. We shouldn't go down the route of punishing him just to make ourselves feel better, he probably won't live long enough to be 'cured', if he even is curable. Letting him go isn't an option he's dangerously insane, and conventional prison punishment just isn't going to work on him, frankly a phsychiatric facility is the only fair and sensible thing to do.

I agree.

[Bojangles]

I'm just glad he can't hurt his daughter anymore and that her and her children are safe and can hopefully now start living a normal life. I know it will be hard for the entire family, but maybe some healing can start.

[CtraK]

Mar 19, 2009 9:26:20 GMT -5 Damen said:

Life, but is it justice?

Could you ever deliver justice on this case anyway? Even the death penalty seems lenient.

[Jodie]

I don't think my personal sense of justice has been satisfied, but at least he will not hurt anyone anymore.

[perv]

I know this isn't really possible, but the closest to a fitting punishment I can imagine would be if they did somehow cure him so he could understand how horrible he is before he dies.

[Nutcase]

@ Damen: How is this justice? Or even punishment?

I understand your desire for justice, but there’s no good way to get a remedy here. That old geezer is on his last legs. Life in prison…life in a psychiatric facility…it’ll be a few years at most. There’s nothing else, within legal and ethical bounds, that can be done.

If it makes you feel any better, though, Fritzl will hate every remaining minute of his life. That guy’s a control freak, but he’ll be living in an environment where he’s regulated down to what time he’s allowed to piss.

In a way, that's more just than the death penalty ever could be.

[m52nickerson]

Mar 19, 2009 14:16:07 GMT -5 CtraK said:

Could you ever deliver justice on this case anyway? Even the death penalty seems lenient.

Agreed, I don't thing you could ever come up with a way in with justice would be served in this case.

[szaleniec]

Mar 20, 2009 2:25:30 GMT -5 Nutcase said:

If it makes you feel any better, though, Fritzl will hate every remaining minute of his life. That guy’s a control freak, but he’ll be living in an environment where he’s regulated down to what time he’s allowed to piss.

In a way, that's more just than the death penalty ever could be.

I actually think that would be the case for most people who go to prison. We take for granted that (within the constraints of the law, of course) we can go wherever we want and do whatever we want when we want to. Prison takes all that away. Even if it was like a five-star hotel in there, it wouldn't make it less of a punishment.