Craigslist 'killer' kills himself
Philip Markoff, the man accused of using Craigslist to hire sex workers who he then attacked, has been found dead in his cell where he was awaiting trial. Markoff was accused of the murder of Julissa Brisman at the Copley Marriott Hotel back in April 2009. He was also charged with the armed robbery of another woman who he also …
- bad guy dead
- said bad guy not costing money while in jail
- said bad guy requires no checking up on should he have ever made it back to free-range.
While I think about it, best idea for a reality TV show EVAR. "Suicide Watch". Crims are filmed and are encouraged to save tax payers their money. Audience cheers as another one bites the dust!
I've had the idea for a while of a game show where you get 100 competitors, and one will be shot dead whilst the others each win 1 million dollars/pounds/Euros etc.
It would be (well, mildly) interesting to see if punters are prepared to risk a 1-in-100 risk of death for the 99-in-100 chance of winning a big pile of cash.
Yes, you need a budget of 99 million dollars + the cost of building the set, presenter wages etc, but I reckon this could see a decent set of viewing figures to help cover the cost. And who knows, it might be enough to pay $50,000 at the same odds.
Just needs (in addition to a little further polishing) a name. Something like "Death or Dollars" or "Fuckit, I'll never have to work again - whatever happens" or some such,
reduce it to one-in-six. Maybe as the queue for those odds diminishes, increase them a bit for round two? Obviously one-in-six would be with a revolver, but perhaps the first round should use a semi-auto.
The reality tv show idea got me wondering how low the odds would be before people didnt apply. I bet 100-1 would get loads of applications. Even 50-1 would be full. I reckon around 15-1 would be the lowest...... great idea though!
Except it would be a dozen Convicts all fighting for their freedom (of course have it Opt-In). Of course when one of them wins, you just charge them with n-1 murders. Repeat ad-infinium until you have just one convict left in the entire prison system, then just execute them.
Of course this would be the perfect entertainment for Americans, and will also fix the Budget deficit. It would also be quite entertaining if they replaced the convicts with White-collar criminals / bankers / lawyers.
hahaha... be sure to be last in line for that round
There are probably 100 network executives, trying to find and hire you right now.
..save everyone a few quid. Families may of preffered to watch him rot, but a result all the same.
Possibly, the hopelessness of American jurisdiction, where you need shedloads of money to mount an effective defense, and maybe he didn't have it, or couldn't raise it.
Guilty or innocent? We'll never know.
If a prisoner is executed in the US, my understanding is that the evidence is automatically destroyed*. Guess the same (suicide?) applies to this bloke.
*Corrections greatfully received, BTW.
In so far as I'm aware (my degree is in physics, not law), evidence in the States is never automatically destroyed except by explicit court order. It can be lost by acts of God or sheer incompetence (which, I suppose, is also an act of God), but outside of that all evidence is preserved for some rather lengthy period of time. It can be sealed so that no one can see it without the aforementioned explicit court order, but that's a different thing.
In the US if someone is charged with a capitol offense, and the prosecutor seeks the death penalty, the defense cost is the burden of the state, if the defendant cant afford a top dollar lawyer, the state hires one for him, they dont hire some shabby public defender, they hire from a pool of top notch specialized criminal defense lawyer, then if the defendant is convicted, they appeal is filed automatically, the defendant can request a new lawyer, same hiring rules apply, and all evidence is preserved for 25 years. thats also the reason people sit on death row so long, its not cost the state millions in housing them, its to give an opportunity for hidden facts to surface, you know, like people hiding something which is burning on their conscious to come forward, or for new evidence to be found, that may either prove the innocence of the defendant or further his guilt...
Shouldn't that read ALLEGED Craigslist killer kills himself? excuse the caps. Or doesn't innocent until proven guilty apply anymore? (yes, I'm looking at the two morons who posted first).
That'll be why El Reg used quotes around 'killer'.
Yes you are quite right, I noticed that after I posted, I probably missed it due to reading it on a netbook. I wouldn't however have gotten the inference that the guy was a convicted killer from the use of 'alleged' so my comment stands.
So people fear prison so much they would rather kill themselves than go there, that's just wonderful.
If a guy wants to commit suicide in prison, then who cares? Is the US media just disappointed that he robbed them of a high-publicity trial?
the innocent would be the most likely to become suicidal in prison, about which I guess the 'who cares?' attitude would identify a personality-type as distinct from those who figuratively-speaking shout 'jump!' ?
For that matter, what happened to the right to a speedy trial? He tried to commit suicide in prison LAST YEAR? If you can't hold trial within a week of arresting the person, obviously you don't have enough evidence to justify holding the person.
Also agree with the innocent till proven guilty thing. Yeah the put killer in quotes, but these days I feel like that really isn't enough. This is just another case that proves how horrible trial by media is.
There is a reason why we have the electoral college, it is because the 'popular vote' is comprised of far too many idiots to be trusted to make important decisions.
that the good ol' pitchfork-wielding witch-burners are alive and well, judging by some of the cretinous comments here. When I see people carrying on like that, I like to imagine their faces when it's their own innocent wives/husbands/children on the chopping block. Or even themselves.
I wish that yoinkster and the two ACs above who think that this guy's fate is tough shit would find themselves in the slammer charged with paedophilia or something. You're innocent, I'm sure, but hey, who gives a shit?
Yes, idiots like you are why we have no fucking freedoms left.
Any more it would seem....
One of the things I normally enjoy about the comments here is the fact that they are written by people who know how to put a sentence together, and actually think for themselves, as opposed to the normally depressing level of comments one finds on most websites, apparently written by people who have just managed to get their knuckles off the ground long enough to more or less randomly hit the keys to "express" themselves.
The first couple of comments on this one are of that type.... I hope that they are Americans and not English commentators, as the attitudes they espouse are very typical of the good old USA..... Sadly.
A speedy trail means with in one year not two weeks. We don't know if he waved is right to a speedy trail as some do.
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