Daniels spares mentally ill killer.
Gov. Mitch Daniels on Monday spared the life of convicted killer Arthur P. Baird II, adding fuel to a national debate over whether people with severe mental illnesses are fit to be executed.
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Baird was to be executed early Wednesday in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City for the Sept. 6, 1985, stabbing deaths of his parents, Kathryn and Arthur Baird. He also was sentenced to 60 years in prison for strangling his pregnant wife, Nadine, and eight years for killing his unborn child the day before his parents’ slayings in Montgomery County.
It’s always struck me a bit odd that we like to have murderers sane before we kill them. I know it has to do with mens rea and the moral culpability we feel is necessary before imposing the death penalty, but it strikes me as a bit odd just the same. My personal problem with the death penalty is that I’m not confident the system is 100% (or even in the high 90s) reliable in making sure the right person is convicted. Probably I’m just not sensitive enough to the plight of the mentally ill, but I don’t really have a problem with the state executing an individual whose mental illness is severe enough that it would allow the individual to stab his parents and strangle his pregnant wife. On the other hand, I’m not so blood thirsty that I have a problem with Gov. Daniels converting Baird’s sentence.
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