Facebook: A reason to kill?

In the virtual world, Facebook is at the top of the list of social networking sites. Millions of people all over the world connect through Facebook every day. On the front page it tells you that "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life". It also encourages you to participate by announcing "It's free and anyone can join".

I have a Facebook page. I think most people know that if it's available online, more than likely I have something there. I enjoy my time on Facebook. I play several of the games. Sometimes I write there, although most of my writing is here on Blogger. I keep up with several family members and friends that live far from me. It is a connection site for me.

And it is a connection site for many other people all around the world. I came across this story out of Britian last night about Facebook. A 41 year old man became enraged when his estranged 26 year old wife changed her status on Facebook to single.

Sarah Richardson moved back in with her parents back in April of 2008 because she had decided her marriage to Edward Richardson was over. She had stopped responding to his calls and texts and changed her Facebook status to single. Edward then went to her family home, broke the window in the front door and attacked and murdered her in her bedroom.

After stabbing her to death he attempted to take his own life but failed. On Friday Edward was convicted of the killing and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The headline of the story from The Independent was 'Life for wife-killer enraged by Facebook change'. Well I'm sorry but 18 years is not LIFE. He'll be 59 when he gets out of prison. 59 doesn't seem old to me. It seems like he'll have a lot of life left to live after his "life" sentence is completed.

According to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia, life imprisonment time varies from country to country and ranges from a minimum of 7 years to the death of the prisoner. Some countries have banned life imprisonment saying that it violates human rights.

What I want to know is what about the human rights of the people that were murdered? Did they not have the right to live their lives until a natural death occurred? And why does the person that took someone's life have more rights than the person they killed? That's basically what I feel they are saying. We know you killed someone and violated their right to live in the most heinous way, but we don't want to violate your right to live your life. We'll just keep you here and feed you for a few years and then we'll let you go...if that's alright with you.

Why worry about what they deserve? They MURDERED another human being. That person has no rights anymore to me. They don't get to decide anything. They ended someone's life therefore I believe their life should be ended too. Not just 18 years worth either. Forever.