Trial wasn't a good choice. He could've ended up in prison for 10+ years that way, and probably didn't have the $1+ million for legal fees to have a decent chance of avoiding that outcome. A plea bargain or fleeing to one of the few corners of the world where the US can't grab you were the only realistic choices other than suicide.
> Anyway, the main point that has totally gone over your head, is that one should never, ever, encourage suicide.
I'm not encouraging suicide in general. I'm saying it can be a viable option, no depression necessary. By being realistic about suicide being a viable option we might better save people on the brink by better understanding their thinking, rather than assume that the choice of suicide is always bad and taboo to discuss.
Suicide is a good choice, but trial wasn't because you might get a 10 year sentence. Pray tell, what prevents suicide during trial or after conviction?
Suicide can be an option without depression, but when you have the fire at your toes and it's either death in 30 seconds by fire or in 5 minutes by free fall (and even then it's arguable.)
It's certainly NOT a viable option when you are months or years away of the feared problems, and even LESS so when they are not life or death.
Suicide can be talked about but not like you stated it: "He had no choice, yeah, suicide made sense." Especially when you are not being realistic, you are blinded by a weird combination of prescience and intimate knowledge of the happenings inside of prisons.
Which leads to my final point (this is what led me to answer your nonsense for a final time): Going to jail IS an option, an option that millions go through every year. Some of them are rich white kids that continue their lives afterward. And I can tell for a fact not all of them are raped.
It's harder to kill yourself post-conviction. He wasn't a wealthy CEO or like that, so presumably he'd have been in handcuffs within minutes of a guilty verdict. Some of the perhaps-innocent people indefinitely detained in Gitmo are trying to starve themselves. They get strapped down daily and calories are forced into them.
What's worse, burned alive or prison/huge fine/felony conviction/good chance of rapes/beatings/poverty/homelessness? For many people including me, either may be a fate worse then death.
His odds of being raped were over 20% according to studies. It's a safe bet that the young and handsome are more at risk.
I've said elsewhere I wish he had fled to another country. But I can see how being on the run, especially from the nearly worldwide reach of the US, could be a life too hard to bear for many people.
While I disagree that jail and the other hardships Aaron faced are a viable alternative to suicide, for me at least, I respect your opinion on that and understand that yours is the opinion of the vast majority.
> Anyway, the main point that has totally gone over your head, is that one should never, ever, encourage suicide.
I'm not encouraging suicide in general. I'm saying it can be a viable option, no depression necessary. By being realistic about suicide being a viable option we might better save people on the brink by better understanding their thinking, rather than assume that the choice of suicide is always bad and taboo to discuss.