It's hardly a newsflash how I feel about violent criminals: they should be given no mercy and when found guilty they should be viciously and cruelly executed and then have their bodies displayed in the town square.

Gee, does that seem harsh? Then you will have to have to forgive me for not giving a flying fig about a criminal who has taken the life of another in an act of cruel selfishness and without regard to the consequences of that action. The recent case involving the young woman in North Dakota and the tragic murder of Laci Peterson and her unborn child have made me realize that there is no place in society for murderers, rapists, molesters or those who would act in violence against another while committing a crime. For the sake of this argument, I am limiting "sociopath" to those who act in violence, not your average politician.

These individuals CANNOT be rehabilitated and our legal justice system and society at large would benefit greatly from permanently removing them from the population. Of course "permanently" would in my mind be PERMANENT, as in they breath no oxygen, use no government resources - THEY RESIDE IN ASHES.

History has proven that a vast majority of sociopathic criminals are beyond help.

According to the above article, sociopaths do not possess a normal characteristic of basic humanness: empathy. Without empathy an individual can not possibly interpret or process the feelings of another. Without this internal and external barrier there is nothing preventing them from carrying out wanton desires on innocents.

As much as we as a society would like to believe that criminals can and SHOULD be rehabilitated, the point is moot when it comes to certain individuals, those who show a pattern of sadistic impulses and who clearly lack compassion for anyone but themselves, in essence, the embodiment of complete and utter selfishness. Society cannot tolerate and should not tolerate this type of individual regardless of their crime whether it be murder, rape or both.

Unfortunately we are so reluctant to seek the death penalty because our legal system has provided so many loopholes to the truth of a crime, that to determine an actual timeline of events leading to a criminal act is virtually impossible. We are far more concerned with preserving the accused's rights than protecting and providing justice for the victim. Remember: the victim is the one whose rights were violated for the purposes of a selfish motive.