Depends on your line of thinking. Do I think that person would be guilty of murder? No. Attempted murder? Well, yeah. That's what it
was. The only reason they were thwarted in their attempt to murder someone was because the person was already dead. That fact in no way negates the veracity of the intention. Do I think you can
actually charge them with it? No. That's more or less what we're talking about, and I realize I read over your comment a little too quickly when I responded (was on my way out the door). I think in the case of child rapists thwarted only because the bait was fake or being watched, it shows a clear line of psychological dysfunction. These people are fucked up in the head. But I was reading this thread as more about guilt, not conviction. I don't think that you can really convict a person that didn't do anything, but this has been debated for years and years and years by many, many people. This is why we
have charges like *attempted* murder. If you can clearly present that somebody was going to commit a crime, it isn't as bad as actually doing it, but they're going to suffer the consequences of being a threat to society because of their plainly nefarious intentions. I don't think you can convict someone of doing something they haven't done, but I think you can certainly convict them of the intention to do it
if you have irrefutable evidence of that intention.
But again, given that I'm friends with several girls who were raped as children and others who have been close to that can of thing, I've seen first hand how it can utterly destroy people. I'm too close to it, so yes, I would probably beat to death with my bare hands any man I ever came across that had so much as even attempted to do anything like that to someone I knew, even if he hadn't actually managed to work his plan out. And obviously, rehabilitation is a whole different story. There's been tons of debate about that, too, whether or not people can actually be rehabilitated out of that kind of behavior, and I don't know what to think about all that. If I felt somebody had done something wrong and then subsequently changed, the story would be different to a degree. I'd certainly never trust them the same way, but I might well find that my urge to beat their face in with a plank had subsided quite a bit.
EDIT -
This stuff hits very close to home for me.
