Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Suicide pact in Okinawa
body count: 3 method: hanging

Monday, May 30, 2005

A ban on ball-point pens would be the next logical step
Some doctors in Britain are calling for a ban of pointed kitchen knives. They are apparently the weapon of choice since guns are highly restricted over there. This goes to show that banning objects does not really change how people relate to one another.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

A 24 year old in Japan has been arrested for trying to coordinate a suicide pact which would have involved himself and two 15 year olds.

Friday, May 13, 2005

It's almost funny
U.S. inmate Michael Ross on death row has waived all further appeals of his sentence and has been recently executed. Despite his having been found competent by the courts, attorney Polan and some others claim that his willingness to accept death indicates, in and of itself, that he was insane. Also, opponents of the death penalty predict that the execution will trigger a chain reaction in the area that will "break down" barriers against capital punishment. It's not clear to me how an inmate accepting his death sentence is going to encourage juries and courts to impose the death penalty on a more regular basis; supposedly those upright citizens are all sane and of sound morality, so if they find the sentence repugnant and only impose it as punishment for the most heinous of crimes, it's doubtful that the frequency of that sentence is going to increase unless, that is, more people commit such crimes. But it's incredulous to think that someone who is determined to die would choose this as a method; it's much less trouble to jump off a bridge or hang. And if someone was so twisted as to rape and kill other people with a view toward getting a free lethal injection for himself, perhaps the kindest thing a person could do for him and for society as a whole would be to grant his wish, preferably before he could do either of those things.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

body count: 5
The usual method was employed

Monday, May 09, 2005

body count: 3
Interestingly, while the police decline to give a statement as to how these three people may have known each other, the news story very helpfully points out that a number of suicide pacts have been made over the web in that country. They also point out that news of groups suicides seems to spark copycat incidents.

So, should the journalists who wrote up this story be held responsible for the next group suicide?