Let the family decide how Carnation killer spends the rest of his life

The family impacted by the murder of six people should have a say in how the convicted killer spends the rest of his life, KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill said.

Joseph McEnroe, the man who walked into his girlfriend’s parents’ house on Christmas Eve 2007 in Carnation and helped kill six members of the Anderson family, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. Jurors had the option to serve McEnroe the death penalty, but did not come to a unanimous decision.

The family should be entitled to some decisions, Don said.

“What about this … They are allowed to choose how he spends the rest of his days,” Don said.

The family could decide, for example, how often McEnroe is in his cell; when he can go outside; or what he eats for the rest of his life, Don offered.

“Those questions would give the family some kind of control,” he said. Control would help with closure, he added.

Pam Mantle, the mother of one victim and grandmother of two of the victims said the sentence is justice. However, she still thinks about losing so many family members every day.

“Let the family decide how he’s going to live, which really is all about how he’s going to die,” Don said.

But McEnroe may have been inadvertently sentenced to death. Because he will not be on death row, he will be mixing in with the general population of prisoners, Don explained. Most prisoners won’t respect someone who killed children. McEnroe may go the way of Jeffrey Dahmer, who was killed in prison by another inmate in 1994.

“In a lot of ways, maybe [McEnroe] got the death penalty already by being released to the general population,” Don said.

KIRO Radio’s Ron Upshaw is typically on the fence about the death penalty, because innocent people have been killed in the past.

“In this case that’s not what we have,” he said.

McEnroe say in court and explained how he killed people. He seemed to like it and was putting on a show, Don responded.