Finally I can eat carbs again.

Not that I would ever do anything to get a one-way trip ticket to prison, but I can't imagine spending my whole life in a cell. There's a good reason right there to not do horrible, messed up sh!t.

I have to say this.

I can't believe that tax dollars went to brain surgery for this murderer.

Had the same thought, and was also trying to imagine how it would feel to be the surgeon.

Once someone is made a ward of the state, what is the obligatory level of care? If she'd had pneumonia would it be upsetting to waste money on antibiotics because she'd been bad?

I'm not bothered by it. If we don't want to provide medical care then either they should be let go or executions should be performed at sentencing.

If I"m ever diagnosed with something, I think I'll go commit a crime so I can get free health care...

I hope those she murdered are resting better today...

The whole subject bothers me because I don't like feeling uncharitable, even toward people I believe have behaved badly.

Susan Atkins was not someone who'd just "been bad" and I am not suggesting that all prisoners are not deserving of medical care. Atkins' crime was particularly heinous, stabbing a pregnant woman as she begged for her life and the life of her unborn child. And she said (I believe it was on the witness stand?) that she did it because she was tired of listening to Tate's pleas for mercy.

When defense attorneys at capital trials argue in favor of mercy by saying things like "If Mr. Defendant were to have a seizure here or in prison, we'd do everything we could do to save his life," the D.A. gets up and responds, "Absolutely, we would, so that the state could visit the appropriate punishment on him, which is death." It follows that since a life sentence is punishment, the state has an interest in keeping people alive so they can punish them as much as possible.

But what happens when the original sentence was death, but that sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because the death penalty was briefly outlawed and you can't commute it back once the death penalty is reinstated?

(Not that I care, I just couldn't resist bringing up the point)