what would you suggest instead? If I was the judge I'd have sentenced him to a locked psych ward and permanent guinea pig status for testing new drugs that are intended to cure criminal psychopathy.

[That sounds like advocating torture.]

hardly. Whatever pills we try on psychopaths, would already have passed the safety phase of testing with animal models, so it's only a question of efficacy.

Bottom line is, they've already thrown their lives away, and we would be well justified in executing them, or preferably confining them to prison for life.

The potential of finding a medical treatment would allow for determinate sentencing, which is more humane than life sentences.

Better yet, a treatment that works could be applied as soon as the psychopathy/sociopathy is detected, which for most of them is when they're still juveniles. Successful treatment will prevent further crimes, so what you end up with are law-abiding citizens on pills, rather than dangerous predators who have to be kept in cages.

[That's one way to describe it. "Only a question of efficacy" is one way to describe using prisoners as guinea pigs for medical tests. It's an "efficacy" with a pretty ugly history.]

the land you're sitting on right now... has a pretty ugly history too, as in genocide to take it by force from those who had lived there for the previous 12,000 years. Ever give that some thought?

So what are you going to do about that? Wrack yourself with guilt until you drop dead? Tear down your house and live in a tent? No, obviously. One can recognize the injustices and atrocities without becoming paralyzed.

The "ugly history" meme is frankly a straw man.

Psychopathy and sociopathy (and narcissism) are pandemic in our culture. Meanwhile the media freaks out about autism. The need for viable treatments for psychopathy and sociopathy is as urgent as their latest poster children, whether the scumbag at the center of the present thrash, or scumbags like Karl Rove and the Wall Street fraudsters.

So how are you going to develop a treatment if you can't test it on people who have the diagnosis?