His crimes were immortalized in the hit movie “Boys Don’t Cry,” starring Hilary Swank in her career-making role as Brandon Teena, a transgendered child who preferred life as a male until it was discovered he was born female.

For more than 10 years, John Lotter has faced death in Tecumseh, Nebraska’s electric chair for the 1993 triple murder that spawned the movie. He was sentenced to death for killing “Teena Brandon,” Lisa Lambert and Phillip DeVine, after Brandon reported that Lotter and another man had raped her.

Something has changed, however—and once again Teena Brandon seems to be the one victimized by the outcome: Lotter (and nine other men) may not be meeting their maker any time soon—or ever.

In a February 2008 ruling, the state of Nebraska agreed that electrocution, which is the state’s only means of execution, can be considered “cruel and unusual punishment,” and is not the way in which men condemned to death should die.

A bullet to the head, maybe? Gas, perhaps? Lethal injection?

No matter how you look at it, there is a strange dichotomy here: Those sentenced to death are actually waiting to hear how they will die.

Or are they?

This is where that ultimate argument-maker—the death penalty—gets fun. In deciding that electrocution might be “cruel” and unusual—let’s give them the latter and just argue the former, no?—punishment, one might beckon to think that we are beginning to care how we kill people. That the idea that killing another human being because he or she killed is maybe not the answer.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning told the AP, “They’re still sentenced to death. Their punishment remains death and the punishment has not changed.”

Ahem … We get that, Counselor.

There’s even a “Save John Lotter from The Electric Chair” movement out there on the good old trusty Internet. Check out this open letter, which, incidentally, has been signed by 2267 people as of this writing:

To:  The State Of Nebraska

Dec. 31st 1993. Around 3a.m. Two men by the names of Marvin Thomas Nissen And John Lotter. Both entered the home of Lisa Lambert. There was three other person’s whom was in the home that night. One of witch was Teena Brandon. (Boys don’t cry) (Whom I like to call Brandon.) The Other persons have disclosed names. I unfortunately cannot mention either one. One in witch is Lisa’s minor son. For The other individual. I have no legal permeation to mention his name. These two men both took equal part of the triple homicide; that took place that dreadful evening. How ever! Mr. Thomas Nissen made a plea barging. The plea barging stated that Mr. Nissen would not have to face the death plenty, and agree not to live in the same prison as one John Lotter. John Lotter whom awaits the death plenty. Mr. Lotter is now on death row. In the state of Nebraska when A PERSON is found guilty of murder. A human will be put to death by the way of the electric chair! This is an OUTRADGE! No state should still have the ELECTRIC CHAIR As a punishment! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! We all know it is wrong to MURDER! But why is it okay to SENTANCE a man to DEATH? That to me is also MURDER! What does such an inhuman sentence as the ELECTIC CHAIR prove TO SOCIETY! Is this justice? NO!! This Petition was developed so we the people can change John Lotter’s sentence from the death plenty to LIFE IN PRISION! I feel as though He should have the same sentence as Mr. Nissen. If you think so too. Please sign this petition. Perhaps this could be the begging of the Ridden the Electric chair in the state of Nebraska for GOOD!

Okay, not the most impressively written missive and maybe a stronger argument for school budgets being cut, but that is for another time…

We live in a different age, people. Maybe it’s time we take a look at how we punish those responsible for the most heinous acts of murder and come up with different ways to accomplish the same results.
I’m all for paying more taxes for more prisons. But maybe there’s another solution?

Interestingly enough, Lotter told the AP in a prison interview that he doesn’t “buy suggestions that lethal injection is more humane than electrocution. A drug that paralyzes the body likely just hides the suffering,” he said.

“You put a cover over it. How is that humane? Being dead is dead.”

Funny that this murderer now cares how one dies.

No one’s sure if the story coming out of Gloucester, Mass., is true or not. But there appears to have been some sort of pregnancy pact among at least ten teenage girls attending Gloucester High.

Like totally, for sure, the dumbest pact ever.

Alexis chimed in with this little missive about Cynthia Sommer the San Diego woman recently freed from a murder conviction. Apparently, Cynthia is internet panhandling for some dough.

Here’s what Alexis posted this week on CR:

Cynthia Sommer is my daughters father’s (Ross Ritter) girlfriend. They are planning a nice life on the money she thinks she will get. I talked to her personally and she thinks she is worth 20 million dollars. I believe that it is wrong of her to beg people for their hard earned money when she thinks that she will be a millionaire. I just would like everyone that is thinking about sending her money to know that the minute she got out she went and got a facial and went to get drunk. If she is going to have all this money I believe she can pay her own fees. If it were not for her getting arrested she would still be a low class telemarketer. She now thinks she will be rich and is even saying that she is driving a new 08 Infinity right now. I do not think she deserves peoples hard earned money… BEWARE!! Her and Ross will be living it up on your money.

Who knew that Parenting 101 had a botany section? Not me.

People in Macclesfield, North Carolina, are scratching their heads in disbelief as the news came out on Friday that a home-schooled kid had been disciplined to death.

By being tied to a tree.

Here’s a snip from WRAL, a TV station in Raleigh:

A 13-year-old boy who was tied to a tree two nights this week died Thursday, and his father and stepmother have been charged with murder, authorities said Friday.

Brice Brian McMillan, 41, and Sandra Elizabeth McMillan, 36, both of 1110 Felton Farm Road in Macclesfield, have been charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse. They were being held Friday in the Edgecombe County Detention Center without bond.

Deputies were called to the Felton Farm Road residence Thursday afternoon to assist paramedics with an unresponsive teen. The boy’s father told deputies he had tied the teen to a tree outside the home Tuesday night because he was being disobedient and other disciplinary actions had failed.

The father said he untied the boy Wednesday morning and allowed him back into the house, but he was tied to the tree a second time that night when he started acting up again. The boy remained tied up until his stepmother found him unconscious at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.

The father was performing CPR on the teen when paramedics arrived at the house, said John Dwight Jefferson, of the Pinetops Rescue Squad.

The teen, who was identified as Tyler Gene McMillan, was in cardiac arrest and was taken to Heritage Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Jefferson said.

Message boards at WRAL are rife with finger pointing, but also a few defenders have shown up. Some posited that none of this would have happened if the boy hadn’t been home schooled. Huh?

Here’s what rruss had to say:

I knew this kid and his mother personally. He was one of my students in a home school co-op class I taught. He was not unruly. they did not home school so they could hide abuse. I think it was an over the top punishment gone wrong. Negligent yes, murder no. Most definitely I would classify this as manslaughter. They are going to have to live with this forever. This is not a home school issue. If you want it to be then you will lose because home schoolers out perform public schooled kids in every category including socialization and manners. When all the facts flesh out we may find that the stepmother was scared of the dad, she was the monster, he was the monster, or they were both monsters. Right now we don’t know. In public at least they were a well adjusted family. One thing is clear; this family will never be the same again. They need prayer and patience.

It was reported that the boy’s wrists and ankles were bound with plastic ties and that he was also tied to the tree with some other material. Investigators found bruises on the boy’s wrists and ankles, declining to comment on whether other marks were found on his body.

The McMillans are scheduled to be in court today. Their lawyer will likely argue that their sentence should be pruned from the max. How could they have known that he’d die? It wasn’t their fault. He was a bad kid.

If that’s their defense, I’d say they’re barking up the wrong tree.