Some offenses are so heinous they can never be wiped from the record — criminal or moral. There’s no normalizing first- or second-degree murder. Not by having done the time with good behavior, not by getting a college degree, not by apologizing. Other crimes don’t, in themselves, warrant a life sentence, but put enough serious violations together, and the perpetrator needs to be taken off the streets.

The right is in uproar over the unprovoked fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian immigrant. Iryna Zarutska was returning home from a night job on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her accused killer, Decarlos Brown Jr., has a history of mental illness and a long rap sheet including armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering.

I oppose the death penalty and will spare my MAGA friends

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