On Tuesday, Ariel Castro, the man who kept women captive at his home in Cleveland, Ohio, has died after being found hanging in his cell.
He had been sentenced on to life imprisonment without parole plus 1,000 years on 1 August 2013.
The prosecutor who had tried him responded by calling him a "coward" unable to withstand "a small portion" of what he had inflicted on the women he had raped and kept captive for 10 years.
Reports suggest he used his bedsheets to hang himself and was discovered during a routine 30 check. Doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
Such a long sentence, in a country where the death penalty is still legal and used, was always going to be controversial. This comment from Facebook makes it clear:
It is indeed costly to keep someone in prison for their whole lives. However in this case where Castro kept young women as captives, it was a small dose of revenge in the eyes of many.
In the UK, killers such as Harold Shipman and Fred West have committed suicide rather than live out their life sentences. Both cases caused controversy with one group saying good riddance, while others claiming that prisons should do more to prevent such criminals gaining and 'easy way out' from their punishment.
Do you think suicide is an 'easy way out'? Is it a sign of absolute remorse? Do you think it is better or worse for the victims? Do you think prisons need to do more to prevent suicides?
Read more:Here
Papers Divided After Shipman Suicide
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