Relishing Murder

"I don't believe that any offender should have access to this type of media. They're reliving the previous committed crimes."
To allow somebody like this to view these types of things, especially where they are going to be re-enactments of his crime, I find reprehensible. I just don't, for the life of me, see how this could possibly be considered rehabilitation."
Joseph Wamback, victims' rights advocate

Mr. Wamback is perplexed and more than a trifle outraged that the creepily morbid Mark Twitchell, convicted of first degree murder and serving a life sentence in a Saskatchewan prison, is permitted to view the TV series Dexter, which inspired him to emulate the show's violent TV plot on his own bid to achieve a desired end. To act out the double life of a societal-avenging serial killer.

Taking his cue from the show, he lured Johnny Altinger, by posing on the Internet as a woman, and then killed the man in a rental garage. He went through the motions of another luring, but the man he attacked as a vigilante set for murder, managed to escape, and to alert authorities. Mark Twitchell was an aspiring filmmaker, he had a young child with his girlfriend, and seemed normal enough.

His double life through his fascination with the plot of a blood-spatter expert genuinely performing his public service job by day and transforming himself into a killer-avenger by night, gave him the impetus to mimic what he admired. He killed Johnny Altinger, and dismembered his body for disposal and to evade suspicion. Suspicion caught up with him.

But his fascination with the television series that transformed him from a curious onlooker to a serious conspirator of bloody revenge against those whom he felt ravaged societal norms, turned him into a dangerously violent psychopath. And in the maximum security prison where he is now incarcerated he is permitted to view the serials that inspired him to murder.

Inmates, according to a spokeswoman with Correctional Service of Canada, are permitted to have televisions and may view programs that do not "undermine rehabilitation or the safety of the institution". Corrections mandates that prison managers may undertake to prohibit "material that portrays excessive violence and aggression". 

And the director of communications for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews emailed the message that "politicians cannot interfere and influence decisions made by CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) officials who are responsible for conducting psychological assessments and managing correctional plans to convicted criminals."

None of which makes for a very convincing argument that explains how logical it is that a convicted murderer sentenced to life in prison is presented with the ongoing opportunity to continue relishing and reviewing the gruesome show that led him to his grisly performance. These bureaucratic respondents to public queries and outrage are deaf to their own arguments.