A Well Intentioned Murder?

By plb on December 19, 2006 6:03 PM | No Comments

Jesse D. Cayton Jr discovered that "mercy killing" is still killing and there is no such thing as a well intentioned murder:

A jury took less than an hour Thursday in convicting a West Augusta man of premeditated first-degree murder for killing his wife of 29 years, rejecting his claims that it was a mercy killing.

The jury's verdict was fairly straight forward, considering the action Jesse admitted to was illegal:

Augusta County prosecutor A. Lee Ervin said it didn't matter if Cayton's wife asked to be killed. "That's not a permissible thing to do in Virginia," he said.

During closing arguments, Ervin noted the murder victim was sick and permanently hooked to oxygen, but called into question efforts to paint the death as a mercy killing. " ... there's no evidence that she was going to die anytime soon," he said. "This man shot her down like a dog."

The case was dramatic, in part , because the husband used a revolver to shoot his wife in the face and chest. Others approach killing in a more subtle manner by removing nutrients and treatment.