Five people were killed in the attack on the LGBTQ bar.
The shooter who killed five and injured over a dozen more at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2022 accepted a plea deal Tuesday in connection with federal hate crimes charges and was given 55 concurrent life sentences.
Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to each of the 74 charges of violating provisions of the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as well as gun crimes in the Club Q shooting. Aldrich initially pleaded not guilty.
United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney accepted the plea agreement, sentencing Aldrich to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment.
Personally, I’d rather he reflect and better himself. I’m not entirely comfortable wishing suffering and misery on someone.
You’re a better person than me.
Honestly, I think I’m just fatigued. Retribution isn’t going to bring back the dead or curb hate crimes in the future. Ultimately, I hope those that are guests of the carceral system are treated well because they’re being made to cede their freedom to the state.
If only our justice system was about rehabilitation and making amends instead of about vengful punishment that ends up harboring a cycle of abuse that finds its way back into society.