[greymule]

Tell us the details, Dakota. What happened and when?

I often umpire at Megan Kanka Field in Hamilton, New Jersey. Megan Kanka was lured into a house, raped, murdered, and then sodomized by a released convicted sex offender. No one in her neighborhood was aware that, just down the street from her, the State of New Jersey had housed three convicted sexual predators. Now we have "Megan's Law," and a State web site warns society of a small handful of creeps. Her murderer languishes on death row, still years away from any possible execution for the crime he committed in the summer of 1994. (NJ has not executed anyone since 1963.)

The family managed to carry on. Megan's sister became a pretty good FP pitcher, and her father coached the team.

About 25 years ago, the teenage girl who lived across the street from me was tortured and murdered by a man who had a long history of hammer attacks on women. Though he planned the attack and tried to escape, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Every so often he gets a hearing and pleads to be released.

I used to be opposed to capital punishment. I now believe that society has the right and obligation to rid itself of mad dogs.