Bulger killer Venables to be freed again.

When you are ten you can feel other ppls pain and know what that means that you are hurting ppl, you also have a sense of justice (though you call it being fair). The fact that he is one of a handful of children to have ever done this, even though there hundreds of millions of children from abusive households shows that there is something wrong with his head (and that he is the spawn of satan)

Of course he knew what he was doing, one be naïve if they thought he did not know what he was doing.

Why is it so difficult to abandon the deeply problematic concept of free will and ultimate moral responsibility? The answer is suggested in Samuel Johnson’s epigram: “All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.” The decisive theoretical reasons for rejecting free will and moral responsibility fail to persuade, because we feel free. We feel responsible. True enough, but in almost every other field we allow logic and science (i.e. theory) to trump experience—why not here? One reason is that the ethical implications of denying free will and moral responsibility seem terrifying. We worry that embracing these ideals would lead to a world where “everything is permitted,” and no one is held accountable for anything.

In fact, giving up on the idea of deep moral responsibility has no such anarchical or distressing consequences. Let’s suppose we did start viewing terrible crimes as we do natural disasters. Would this mean we would not try to prevent future crimes? Of course not, no more than it would suggest that we not tape our windows or retrofit buildings to protect ourselves from hurricanes and earthquakes. It would mean only that we cease to relentlessly blame criminals (or political figures) for their behavior. Darrow did not deny that punishment has a pragmatic justification. He understood that long prison sentences were appropriate for his young clients. What he claimed was that punishment can only be pragmatically justified. If you are unlucky enough to be the kind of person who commits crimes, you’ll have to be put away for it. But society should not compound this misfortune by promoting retributive sentiments like resentment and bloodlust—what in our current lingo we call the need for “closure.”

Admittedly, the idea that criminals do not morally deserve punishment is tough to accept. But no more so than was the claim that the earth revolves around the sun. The Copernican hypothesis also went against common experience and ethical orthodoxy. It was resisted and feared, but eventually it won the day. It’s my hope that Clarence Darrow’s view of the world will be similarly vindicated. It is a view that is compassionate, uncompromising, and most importantly, correct.

It is a credit to Robert Thompson that we haven't heard anything about him since he has been released.

Only a really simple mind couldn't grasp this concept.
Age obviously affects decision making ability. Everything affects our decisions. We never do things without a reason, there is always external factors pushing us in one way or another.

I've always linked this article, because I think it sums it up perfectly:
http://www.naturalism.org/sommers.htm

awful news, just shoot him in the head and be done with it

Prison is a measure of justice, not of revenge. If he has been truly proven rehabilitated, the system has done its job and he is free to go.

I think you are not for real and seriously deluded person. If some kid molested and murdered your child, would you be happy for him to be released after serving just 8 years in prison??

And he should be punished because there is something wrong with his head you think? You want him punished for something he cannot help?

Yes, if he had been properly rehabilitated.

I prefer rationality over wild emotion.

Exactly. You have hit the nail on the head. I knew the difference between right and wrong at 10 Years Old. I'm not sure if some people on here are just namby-pamby liberals or if they are seriously naïve in there Ivory Towers?

It's a way of speaking, by that reasoning we should give all rapists, perverts and murderers a pat on the back and tell them to go their perverse merry little way because they 'can't help it'. Could hitler 'help it? Or is it the way he was brought up plus a mental deficiency and so wasn't really his 'fault'. You've gotta laugh at where this kind of liberalism takes us.

I think you are not for real and a seriously deluded person. If some kid molested and murdered your child, would you be happy for him to be released after serving just 8 years in prison??

The prison system isn't there to make people happy. The prison system is there to remove dangerous people from society until it is ruled that they are fit to rejoin it.

I don't understand how human beings can be so filled with hate. He was 10 years old. How on earth can he be fully responsible for his actions?

The prison system isn't there to make people happy. The prison system is there to remove dangerous people from society until it is ruled that they are fit to rejoin it.

What an idiotic comment. When I was ten I knew that murdering and torturing babies was wrong.

The prison system isn't there to make people happy. The prison system is there to remove dangerous people from society until it is ruled that they are fit to rejoin it.

disgusting, it's true what they say. The law really is an ass.