seems like I should be much more paranoid waking up here tomorrow morning knowing that probably 20 or 30 times as many have died in the latter endeavors -- ordering an Egg McMuffin or sleeping in bed in Miami, than hiking/camping in a tent in a National Park, and should realize that my time in the wilderness is INFINITELY SAFER than walking around here in this urban-crime-zone, defined by the local C-of-C and Visitors Bureau as a chic and cool place.
I agree in that I am more concerned about the wolves in the city than in nature.
There have been a lot of comments, guessing and assumptions made about Smith's mental capacity. Really none of us know anything other than what the media reports which is not the most accurate source of information.
We do know that he was convicted of murdering two people in 1981 who were hiking as part of a fund raiser for "retarded and troubled youth." The media reports that he took a plea for second degree murder at the time because the prosecutor wasn't sure he had enough evidence to support a first degree murder conviction.
Smith either did not use an insanity defense or the court was not convinced that he was insane and he was sent to prison, not a mental institution. Prison is a place for people who have the capacity to know right from wrong. Mental institutions for the criminally insane are for people who commit crimes, but are determined to be incompetent to defend themselves in court by reasons of mental retardation or insanity and/or who do not know the difference between right and wrong. The court sentenced Smith to prison. Fifteen years for shooting and bludgeoning one person to death and shooting another person to death is light sentence in my opinion.
At least one thing is certain at this point. The AT Killer will not re-offend.
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