Reply #3: Bloody hell, his "explanation" [View All]

"Murray blamed drug problems for committing at least a dozen burglaries, including the one in February 1998 where Ratcliff was awakened while he rummaged through her bedroom. The widow hit him with her cane or walker, surprising him, and he said after that he "went crazy."

"I didn't know she was in there," he said. "I messed up. Somebody hit me from behind and I went off.

"I did what I did."


Shit, there are people who think a dog should be put down if it gets startled and gives a child a a nip (that the child will recover from just fine.) I don't agree--a dog has an excuse: it's a dog. And a bite isn't rape and murder.

The rationale is that a dog who's done it once might do it again. OK, fine. But that's even MORE true of a person, who's credited with having the capacity to know better in the first place, and if that common-humanity-based taboo isn't there, then there's something wrong that can't be fixed, IMO.