Prisoner Orders Murder Using Cell Phone

The BBC reports on a prisoner who ordered a murder using a smuggled cell phone.

Delphon Nicholas, 29, from Lewisham, south-east London, was convicted on Thursday of murdering Andrew Wanogho, in Brockley, on 8 April 2006.

Nicholas made dozens of calls from London's Belmarsh prison to gunman Trevor Dennie, the Old Bailey heard.

Dennie, 33, from Deptford, south-east London was also convicted of murder and jailed for life.

Both men were ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.

An interesting side note is about the gun used. It was one of those we've talked about before, one which is passed around from one gang member to another and used in several crimes. What does that do to the statistics, I wonder?

In Great Britain, as in other places I'm sure, the smuggling of contraband into prisons is epidemic. This BBC report says that 3,473 mobile phones or sim cards were discovered in prisons in England and Wales between October 2006 and September 2007.

What should be done about this? Are the guards at fault? Is it really that hard to prevent this kind of thing?

What's your opinion? Dangerous prisoners should certainly be deprived of the means of committing further crimes, I would say.

FBI Agent on Trial for Murder and Conspiracy

CNN reports on the complicated trial of an FBI Agent mixed up with a Boston hit man who was convicted of killing a gambling czar in Miami in 1982. John Martorano spent just over 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing the former World Jai-Alai president John Callahan and admitting to 19 other murders. Now free, the 67-year-old's agreement with prosecutors requires him to testify against John Connolly, former Agent with the FBI.

CBS Springfield has a good description of the intricacies of the case.

A hit man for Boston's notorious Winter Hill Gang pulled the trigger that killed John Callahan, but Connolly was equally responsible, prosecutor Fred Wyshak told a jury. Wyshak is a Boston federal prosecutor working as a special assistant in the Miami trial."He gave sensitive information to gangsters, who used that information to protect themselves. And (they) used that information to kill people. One of those people was John Callahan," Wyshak said of Connolly.

Connolly, 68, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and murder conspiracy charges.

What occurs to me is that people like this hit man, Martorano, are much more culpable than some of the other characters we've discussed on this blog. Joseph Edward Duncan III, for example and Richard Cooey are men who have committed horrible crimes, for sure, but should be considered to have diminished capacity. The viciousness of their actions alone could be evidence of mental illness, but I'll bet there's a history of childhood abuse in both their cases. Little boys don't grow up to do that stuff otherwise.

The mob hit man, on the other hand, who received a sentence of 12 years, was recruited for the job because he was friends with the target. He "reluctantly" agreed to kill Callahan in Miami. To me that's more frightening and horrible than anything a mentally deranged young man might do.

The FBI Agent, Connolly, who's on trial now, not only fingered people to be murdered, but in so doing betrayed the public trust of his oath of office. That's far worse in my opinion than what the sickest murderers out there get up to.

Even in these cases, I oppose the death penalty. But in an attempt to establish a hierarchy of evil behaviour, I put these characters at the top, and then we can list the others.


What's your opinion?