I've been getting a huge number of hits today, many from searches for information of Ivan Hill, the "60 Freeway Slayer" I wrote about a while back. I figured something had to be up, so I paid a fast visit to the Los Angeles Times, where I learned the illustrious gentleman had been found guilty and sentenced to death for killing six women in ten weeks in the greater LA area in late 1993 and early 1994.
Generally, I am not a great fan of the death penalty; it seems to serve no rational purpose other than revenge. Once in a while, though, I feel it is warranted: Tookie Williams (who founded the Crips street gang), bin Laden (if convicted by a court outside the US), Cheney, Rumsfeld and bush... and now Hill.
As I wrote in November, Hill had already been convicted of at least one murder prior to the Freeway slayings and had been convicted of numerous felonies in addition. In fact, Hill was still in prison when he was arrested and charged with the Freeway killings (he was about a month shy of relsease, to boot).
The brutality of his killings and his obvious inability to change his behavior lead me to believe that he is completely unredeemable. His public defender was quoted as saying, "[Hill] has shown himself to be a model prisoner. He can be safely imprisoned for the rest of his life."
Yeah, well of course he can be "safely imprisoned". There are no young, defenseless African-American women in the maximum-security wing that he can brutalize and kill. But eventually, some bunch of naive folks on a parole board might decide "he's cured" and release him ('He hasn't killed because he hasn't wanted to kill, not because there's no one for him to kill'). On the basis of past performance, within a week or two he would be killing again.
Why should we provide him with "three hots and a cot" and run the risk of more African-American women -- totally innnocent women -- falling prey to him?
The guy's bad news, and we'll all be better off without him.
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I am not so sure Ivan only stuck to black women. Back in 1975 Ivan and another guy grabbed me and a friend in Ganesha park.We are both caucasion. I hit the guy who grabbed me and when Ivan told him to grab me again I ran. I was holding a small flashlight when they grabbed us and I shined it in Ivan's face and recognized him from school. I kept saying that I knew him and to let my friend go. I flaged down a cop who refused to go into the park alone and I think they heard me screaming to the cop because they let my friend go. We were all around 14yrs old at the time. I never saw Ivan again after that. I had heard he went to jail for the murder in 79. I wonder if we could have been one of his first attempts at rape or murder. I wonder what if I hadn't fought back? I clearly remember his huge grin as he was holding my friend. The other guy seemed to have more of a conscience. I hope he rots in hell.
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