Ok, it's a tough call (not), but in this argument, I'm going to come down on the side of no "rights," no way, nohow. No, I do not think a despicable murderer has any sort of inherent "right to wed," let alone a "right to conjugal visits." Of course, such "rights" can be and often are granted by law. But they shouldn't be.
According to this Jerusalem Post poll, readers by a narrow margin think Yigal Amir should have the right to get married as he serves his life sentence without parole for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. What the heck is wrong with these people?
I'm going to restrain my temptation to launch into a general diatribe about women who become enamored of convicted convicts. I mean, common sense tells me that the right to get married in prison, especially for murderers, would seldom be availed of, because who in her (or his) right mind would want to marry a convicted killer? Common sense would be wrong, though. Jail terms, the longer the better, seem to be some sort of aphrodesiac for certain people. Eric Menendez, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, . . . oops! Seems I launched after all. I guess I need to go read this.
Nah. Look. When you take a life in cold blood, when you kill someone else's husband or daughter or mother or brother or best friend, you lose some rights. You definitely lose your liberty. In this country, you even lose the right to vote. The right to marry, and most certainly the right to procreate, ought to be on that list.
I tell you, it's enough to make me start rethinking the damn death penalty thing. Again.
