Posted on 01/25/2006 11:35:12 AM PST by US admirer
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A jury rejected an insanity defense and found prison inmate Joseph Druce guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the strangulation of pedophile priest John Geoghan, a central figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal.
Druce admitted sneaking into Geoghan's prison cell in August 2003. He jammed the door shut with a book, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old before guards could stop him.
The defense had argued that Druce was mentally ill and under the delusion that God had chosen him to kill Geoghan and send a message to pedophiles around the world.
Prosecutor Lawrence Murphy presented another picture of Druce, describing him as a conniving killer who planned the murder for weeks so he could be a "big shot" in prison.
"He was not a mentally ill person, raging out of control," Murphy said. "He's a calculating individual who waited for his opportunity."
The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for about six hours before reaching the guilty verdict.
Druce, 40, is already serving a life sentence for killing a man who allegedly made a sexual pass at him after picking Druce up hitchhiking. He unsuccessfully used an insanity defense during that 1989 trial.
With the new conviction, he'll face another life sentence without the possibility of parole.
On the witness stand, Druce described a troubled childhood in which his father beat him and his mother. He said he was physically and sexually abused at a residential school for troubled children.
Druce said he killed Geoghan to avenge the innocent children the defrocked priest was accused of molesting. He said he overheard Geoghan advise other inmates on how to molest children and say he planned to move to South America after prison so he could resume working with children.
"I had seen myself as the designated individual who had to put a stop to the pedophilia in the church," Druce said.
Geoghan was in prison for fondling a 10-year-old boy, but he was accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing some 150 children.
His case helped spark the clergy sex abuse scandal that spread worldwide after church personnel records revealed that the Boston Archdiocese had transferred Geoghan from parish to parish, even after allegations of abuse surfaced.
Karma?
Hey, I'm just the messenger.
Nice posts... I'm impressed.
History will catch up with these people.
ROFLMAO, always one of my favorite lines.
Sometimes the law makes me smile. Two life sentences. How exactly does that work? One life sentence here and one life sentence in the next life?
The priest will now find out what God's words meant and hopefully he repented on the way out. I'm certainly not sure how God would rank'em, but some how, I don't think pedophile, queer, Catholic Priests that rape little boys are too high on the list.
That's how Grandma explained the un-explainable.
....
Druce, 40, is already serving a life sentence for killing a man who allegedly made a sexual pass at him after picking Druce up hitchhiking.
Yeah, life in prison without the possibility of parole, that's the ticket. A murderer won't be able to hurt anyone else in prison...
There is only one punishment that prevents a convicted murderer from repeating the crime, and that is execution.
>> There is only one punishment that prevents a convicted murderer from repeating the crime, and that is execution.
especially since prisoners can escape (remember the death
row inmate not long ago who managed to get free--for awhile)
or be pardoned by liberal governors. Druce was able to
commit his crime while IN prison.
But Mass. being Mass., it's unlikely that "Old Sparky"
will be brought back. Even if most people want it back,
the know-it-all legislature finds a way to thwart it.
Boston Globe: "In the aftermath of the Curley killing
(10 yr old boy raped/killed), the House initially approved the death penalty by a single vote then defeated it by the same margin when a single lawmaker -- Peabody Democrat John Slattery -- changed his mind."
That was in 1997. "In 2001, the House revisited the death penalty. By then, the margin of opposition had grown. The House defeated the bill by a 94-60 vote."
Slattery (see above) ran unsuccesfully for mayor of
Peabody, MA. My own little slogan regarding him is
(not flattery, but...) SLATTERY WILL GET YOU NOWHERE.
How do you wedge a door shut with a book, anyway?
I can't understand why a sane society would convict him for the first offense. He should get a medal for the second.
The priest is facing the real judge now, the others who looked the other way and let him continue with his perverted deeds and did not report them to the law will soon be facing the real judge and there will be NO repeal process.
That's true, although perhaps their should be an exception for murderers who hate child molesters so that they can hang around prison to exact justice on guys like Geoghan.
I'm not looking to become a penpal, but if I had the guy's paypal account number I would fire off a token donation for a job well done.
The jury did what it had to do. John Geoghan was a loathsome person who deserves no sympathy, but Joseph Druce still should not have murdered him.
Works for me. I bet Druce doesn't want for anything from his cellmates.
The dirt bag won't get out to foundle another child. I think death is an appropriate sentence for anyone who hurts a child.
at least justice in the afterlife is cheaper on the taxpayers
Naaaah! He should stay in jail, but I think we should keep supplying him with gay pedophile priests...
If this is true, I say... justice has been done.
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