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Plea deal lets Virginia quadruple-murderer escape death penalty (with approval of victims' relatives)

By Douglas A. Berman

This local story from Virginia, which is headlined "Quadruple murderer avoids death penalty with plea deal," provides a number of cross-cutting perspectives on the administration of the death penalty. Here are the factual basics: The suspect in the quadruple homicide that horrified this quiet college town a year ago pleaded guilty to murder charges today and was ordered to spend life in prison.  Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 21, of California, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder in Prince Edward County Circuit Court for bludgeoning the victims with a wood-splitting maul a year ago in a Longwood University professor's home in Farmville. McCroskey, who could have faced the death penalty, was sentenced to life in prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).