Orange County Crime Story of the Day: Death of a cellmate

You may recall this story from this past September, about the Korean-American actor who played  henchman Random Task (a nod to Oddjob) in the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery movie getting life in prison for a brutal kidnap and rape that occurred two decades ago.

Well, it appears that Mr Jospeph Hyungmin is a suspect in the murder of his own cellmate:

The dead inmate was a parole violator serving a new two-year sentence from San Luis Obispo County for failing to register as a sex offender. He was found dead in the cell he shared with Son before 6 p.m. Monday.

The death was being treated as a homicide, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. [HT to White Rice]

I have no idea what sex offense had landed the fifty-year-old cellmate in prison in the first place, but, like rape, execution is not the sentence that was handed out and it is not something we should glibly label as just deserts.

Some might find it ironic, but in my own steadfast opposition to capital punishment, perhaps the only scenario I can think of where execution might be justified is when a lifer such as Mr Son must be stopped from murdering inmates, guards, or visitors to the prison he/she is locked up in.

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