I see where you're coming from, Joost. Unfortunately, I think the fact that the person he killed
was famous made everyone interested in delving into his thoughts; I've read a lot about the whole thing, and everyone - the press, the government, all of them - was so desperate to understand how he justified to himself that killing John was the right thing to do, so that they could prevent "future MDC's"... Do you think that if he had killed an anonymous person, they would have cared as much? It's not like no one in the world got murdered before John did. By the way, I'm not arguing your point or anything, I agree with you.
I just have an unfortunately strong hunch that no one would have been as curious if it hadn't have been a famous person. If someone's killed now, it's more a case of "oh dear, what a bastard. Let's chuck him in jail then, and have done with it." To be honest, they SHOULD take just as much interest in ANY murder, not just the murder of a famous person. If a man's mind becomes delusional enough that he believes that it's alright to kill another man, it's something that needs to be explored, understood and combatted, and that's all there is to it.
And thinking about it, this consideration for parole is probably not worth getting into a
complete panic about; he's been denied parole that many times already, a) why would they change their minds about his mental state and the safety of the public, and b) would he actually want to get out? I know he's mentioned things he'd like to do if he did in the past, but after all this time, I think he might be scared at the prospect of going out into the world where anything can happen, and having to make decisions by himself. I think he might prefer to stay incarcerated; at least there, his life is compartmentalised, and he just lives day by day, with no danger.
Phew, sorry about the essay there!
xxx
