Murderer Avoids Long Prison Sentence in Alaska

According to this story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a homicidal maniac named Christopher Erin Rogers, Jr., who had been sentenced to 498 years in prison for a variety of crimes in 2010 has died in an Alaskan prison at age 41. The convicted murderer has cheated society of another 488 years of incarceration for his misdeeds.

Perhaps some legal scholar could explain why a prison sentence that's almost 6 1/2 times a normal human life makes any sense. Be that as it may, why should death terminate the punishment phase of this man's violation of the social contract? Since he's been sentenced to 498 years, shouldn't he be held in a cell for that period rather than a short ten years even if he's no longer breathing penitentiary air and eating penitentiary food? We can't be sure that the spirit of Rogers has been extinguished merely because his heart no longer beats. In the cause of justice this monster must remain behind the walls and concertina wire of the Spring Creek Correctional Center for another almost 5 centuries to pay for his sins.

frontiersman.com