Gabrielle Giffords confronts shooter Jared Lee Loughner in court

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47. I think it depends...though I don't know how often we do that.

Speaking specifically of mentally ill people who kill (I decline to call it murder, as I believe that signifies a level of intention that a mentally ill person may not be capable of), I don't know how often they are released, but I doubt it is very frequently. However, if the cause of their violence is identified and effectively managed, I see no reason that they should be forced to remain locked away once their sanity has been established.

For murders committed by sane people: even then I think that there are mitigating factors. If one of Jerry Sandusky's victims had one day come back to murder him, would we really say that person deserves to spend the rest of his or her life in jail? If a victim of spousal abuse "murders" his or her partner in their sleep (I put murder in quotation marks, because where there is a significant difference in strength, you could argue that murdering a spouse when they are incapacitated is really a form of self defense), does he or she deserve to rot in prison? What about a victim of rape who has seen her attacker go free despite pressing charges, as so often happens?

I do not believe in mandatory minimum sentences, zero tolerance policies, or any other across the board rule that removes consideration of mitigating factors. I believe in determining a just response to each individual situation. I believe that people going into and entering out of the justice system should be equipped to lead crime free lives, rather than be driven to lives even more dependent on crime, as is now the case (though of course I understand that individuals may not change no matter what options are made available to them). In short, I believe in restorative justice rather than retributive justice.

Edit: I recall now that in your initial post you advocated Loughner being in "the most miserable place possible" despite full acknowledgement of his incapacitated mental state. I realize it may have been something you said while upset or "fired up." But it is regardless a fundamentally inhumane and unjust position to take. In retrospect, I'd like to know how can you possibly advocate deliberately putting a paranoid and delusional person in a miserable environment likely to worsen their mental state? Do you retract that statement now, or do you stand by it?