ex-FBI Agent Connolly Guilty of Murder

I loved this complicated case when we discussed it before, but in today's report on CNN I learned that the movie The Departed was based upon it. I shouldn't be surprised because that was one complex screenplay.

The story that unfolded over the past two months in a Miami courtroom spanned more than two decades of Boston's underworld, a tale that has already spawned several books and was the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film "The Departed." Matt Damon played a crooked Connolly-like law enforcement officer and Jack Nicholson was the Bulger-esque Irish-American mobster.

John Connolly has already been serving a 10-year sentence for racketeering because of his relationship with Bulger, including a 1995 tip that enabled Bulger to escape arrest and begin a life on the run that continues to this day. Bulger is one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives.

Today's conviction is for Second-degree murder because Connolly supplied confidential information to the Boston mob that led to the assassination of World Jai-Alai owner John Callahan in 1982. The trigger man in that incident John Martorano testified against Connolly.

"John Connolly swore an oath to the FBI and the United States of America," said prosecutor Michael Von Zamft. "He gave up that public trust because he decided he would rather be a gangster than an FBI agent."

Martorano cut a deal with prosecutors by agreeing to testify against Connolly, and spent 12 years in prison after admitting to 20 murders, including the killings of Wheeler and Callahan. Martorano is now a free man.

In my opinion, these men are the worst of the worst. Cold blooded killers who do their murders for profit should be considered far worse than the violent deranged men who so often make the headlines.

What do you think? Isn't there something wrong with giving Skyler Deleon and Joseph Edward Duncan III the death penalty and letting Martorano out after 12 years?

Nevertheless, these gangsters sure do make for some good movies.

"When you decide to be something you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the Church. When I was your age they would say we could become cops or criminals. Today what I'm saying to you is this, when you're facing a loaded gun, what difference does it make?"

Yacht Killer Guilty

CNN reports today on the guilty verdict of the so-called child actor who killed two people on their luxury yacht. We discussed this case before, here, when the prosecution announced that it would seek the death penalty.

An Orange County jury found Skylar Deleon, 29, guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims.

Deleon's attorney had conceded to the jury from the outset that Deleon was guilty but should not be put to death. The penalty phase of the trial will begin Wednesday.

The defense plans to avoid the death penalty by producing witnesses that will describe the horrible abuse young Deleon suffered growing up. Although, I personally feel that childhood abuse is grounds for mitigation, and the law allows it to be considered, I don't hold out much hope. I feel that violent people who are so damaged by childhood abuse that they act like this, should be considered mentally ill. What else could you call it? Executing mentally ill people for expedience or for revenge is not what an enlightened society should be doing in my opinion.

What's your opinion? Is childhood abuse ever an excuse for behaviour like this?

Death Penalty Sought for Yacht Killer Skyler Deleon

CNN reports on the case of a former child actor accused of throwing a couple off their yacht bound to an anchor. Skylar Deleon has pleaded not guilty to the murders; the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.

Deleon is accused of killing the Arizona couple, Tom and Jackie Hawks, in 2004 to steal their yacht, and killing another man from whom he stole thousands in 2003.

In a surprising opening statement the defense attorney Gary Pohlson said "Skylar is guilty of all three murders," which is not the same as a guilty plea. It seems it was a dramatic way of trying to avoid the death penalty for his client. I'm afraid it might take more than theatrical performances to save Skyler Deleon.

The jury will also consider the separate murder charge in the death of a man Deleon met in a work furlough program in 2003 while serving jail time for burglary. Murphy said Deleon got $50,000 from John Jarvi, then drove down to Mexico and slashed his throat and dumped his body before coming back.

What's your opinion? Mine is that the death penalty is morally unacceptable. But this case brings up another question which we've looked at before. What's worse, the cold blooded premeditation of these crimes or the furious uber-violent killings we've looked at before, here for example? Is the calculating mafia hit man worse than the mentally ill obsessed killer?

On Kanedax Live Journal it's unclear if the author is in favor of the death penalty or not. Initially he thought Skyler had killed his own parents, but what he mainly seems to be complaining about is CNN's using the child actor angle in their article.