Steven Sandison was convicted and imprisoned, for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend Linda Maclean in Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Michigan in October 1991.
Mr Sandison is serving a life sentence without parole for that murder after his initial claim that his strangulation of her was an assisted suicide, before changing his plea to avoid the death penalty in 1991, and thus not spend years isolated on death row.
Now normally, apart from that arrest and conviction, there is nothing that marks Mr Sandison out as very different any other of the femicidal killers of this sad world.
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| Steven Sandison - Unlikely Hero To Some? |
Mr Sandison is serving a life sentence without parole for that murder after his initial claim that his strangulation of her was an assisted suicide, before changing his plea to avoid the death penalty in 1991, and thus not spend years isolated on death row.
Now normally, apart from that arrest and conviction, there is nothing that marks Mr Sandison out as very different any other of the femicidal killers of this sad world.
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| Linda MacLean - Sandison's First Murder Victim |
But then Mr Sandison committed another crime, and became something of a 'hero' in many peoples eyes.
He murdered his cellmate Theodore Dyer, at the Saginaw Correctional Facility, where they were both serving their life sentences, by strangulation. The dead man was a 67-year-old former Muskegon County Airport Police officer, who had been convicted of molesting the 9-year-old daughter of a neighbour.
He had been caught doing it, when the child's mother came into the room unexpectedly. It turned out this was the third or fourth occasion that he had molested the girl. He had been sentenced to 25-to-50-years imprisonment, which at age 66/67 was effectively a life sentence .... Mr Sandison just had accelerated the process somewhat.
Unusually from a UK point of view, there are videos on-line of Mr Sandison freely, and matter of factly confessing to the killing and giving his reasons to a police officer ....
“The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester…That night he was trying to justify why he did it, and I told him to keep quiet and that he’d have to leave in the morning, find a new cell. But he continued to talk about it, try to justify it. So, he was a little bit bigger than me, so I got down, and I hit him in his face a few times. When he fell, I wrapped a cord around his neck and I took his life.”
However as he was being sentenced to a second life sentence without parole, Mr Sandison made it clear that he is not a 'hero' for killing Theodore Dyer, but that he didn't feel any remorse for it in this instance.
But the statement that most resonated with the audience for his confession world-wide, was ''I know god is going to judge him, I just set the appointment up.'' .... even his attorney struggled not to laugh and described him as "a likeable guy."
I know I shouldn't like him in any way, but I couldn't help, like his lawyer, but feeling a sneaky admiration for his dry wit.
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| Theodore Dyer Had An Early Appointment With His Maker |
He murdered his cellmate Theodore Dyer, at the Saginaw Correctional Facility, where they were both serving their life sentences, by strangulation. The dead man was a 67-year-old former Muskegon County Airport Police officer, who had been convicted of molesting the 9-year-old daughter of a neighbour.
He had been caught doing it, when the child's mother came into the room unexpectedly. It turned out this was the third or fourth occasion that he had molested the girl. He had been sentenced to 25-to-50-years imprisonment, which at age 66/67 was effectively a life sentence .... Mr Sandison just had accelerated the process somewhat.
Unusually from a UK point of view, there are videos on-line of Mr Sandison freely, and matter of factly confessing to the killing and giving his reasons to a police officer ....
“The reason I killed him was because he was a child molester…That night he was trying to justify why he did it, and I told him to keep quiet and that he’d have to leave in the morning, find a new cell. But he continued to talk about it, try to justify it. So, he was a little bit bigger than me, so I got down, and I hit him in his face a few times. When he fell, I wrapped a cord around his neck and I took his life.”
However as he was being sentenced to a second life sentence without parole, Mr Sandison made it clear that he is not a 'hero' for killing Theodore Dyer, but that he didn't feel any remorse for it in this instance.
But the statement that most resonated with the audience for his confession world-wide, was ''I know god is going to judge him, I just set the appointment up.'' .... even his attorney struggled not to laugh and described him as "a likeable guy."
I know I shouldn't like him in any way, but I couldn't help, like his lawyer, but feeling a sneaky admiration for his dry wit.
Update:
After repeated requests, I made another effort, and found a better version of the original newspaper report on the murder of Linda MacLean .... but that's as good as I can find.
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| Linda MacLean Murder Report |
The criminal mind doesn't seem to recognise fairness or consistency - it does what it does without proper reflection. Scrap that, that's how most of us operate, just not to those extremes - our primitive minds sometimes rule the show; we're the product of evolution, a haphazard, trial and error process of minuscule improvements over millennia. It's taken a fair few millennia to arrive at this level of imperfection.
ReplyDeleteHowever, despite the general criminal mind inconsistency, child abusers are consistently universally despised by prison populations world wide. So much so that Its unusual for them to ge housed in the general prison population ... this tale is an example of why.
DeleteThanks for the comment.
Possibly, but as most male prison populations divide along racial and or cultural groupings (particularly in the US) there cant be too many minorities left to pick on. For example, homosexuals are usually put in separate wings for protection anyway in the states.
DeleteI can't say that my liberality stretches to any sympathy for child molesters as a minority, as they fall into that group that I would happily bring back hanging for, or at least jail for life.
The link to the youtube video isn't even about this guy. 🤦🏻♀️
ReplyDeleteI have just clicked both the links on the post above and both are an interview with, or the court appearance of Steven Sandison (the subject of the post), as the images also show .... who were you expecting it to be?
DeleteOf course you admired him, that's what he wants, to get you to identify with him so maybe he can get off easy. He murdered his girlfriend by the way. That's your Hero.
ReplyDeleteI know he murdered his girlfriend - opening sentence "convicted and imprisoned, for first-degree murder of his girlfriend". He cant 'get off easy' as you put it, as he is "serving a life sentence without parole for that murder", meaning that he will never leave prison.
DeleteFinally he's not my 'Hero' either .... I actually said "feeling a sneaky admiration for his dry wit." ... meaning he made me laugh when he said that "I know god is going to judge him, I just set the appointment up.". Even his lawyer smiled in court, and described him as a "a likeable guy."
So I feel safe in assuming that you have totally misunderstood the point of the article, or chose to do so. In any event, thanks for the comment T1mbo and stay safe in these strange times.
Where is there information on the murder of his girlfriend?
DeleteDue to EU laws, I can't display the news reports from local newspapers in the Detroit area (even though we have left the EU). However a simple Google search shows multiple reports on the second murder by Mr Sandison that reference his first life sentence - you can look it up yourself.
DeleteHowever the public police records website confirms what he's imprisoned for, as does the MDOC website
I don't know what more I can suggest .... if you are based outside the EU / Europe area then a search of the Detroit free press in 1991/1992 for the killing should provide the local version (it wasn't a national news killing at the time).
He murdered Linda Maclean in Wayne County, October 1991 immediately after being paroled for Larceny. She was his pen pal in prison and chronically depressed, and lived alone. She had been committed to a psychiatric ward twice before. I believe he killed her in an attempt to inherit her property upon his release, and thus plead guilty to avoid a death sentence
DeleteThanks To Anonymous for the information in the reply above (21/10/2022). The story was printed on Page 15 of the Detroit Free Press, Wednesday, October 30, 1991 which as I have stated I can't access .... however I can confirm that Mr Sandison attempted to disguise/claim that his strangulation murder of Linda Maclean was an 'assisted suicide' before later changing his plea. I will incorporate a bit of this information in to the main post above.
DeleteThanks for the comment. Not everyone agrees with its title, as the previous comment shows, but personally I lean in your direction.
ReplyDeleteHow do I put money on his books
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no idea haha! I doubt its difficult if your serious. Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteTo Cbri - this site allows gifts etc.
ReplyDeleteinmateaid.com website.
I'd be careful with vigilante justice. After all, he's not the only one who would be eager to inflict vigilante justice:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.quora.com/If-someone-would-have-decided-to-beat-the-living-daylights-out-of-former-Indiana-Supreme-Court-Chief-Justice-Randall-T-Shepard-and-also-gouge-his-eyes-out-with-a-knife-while-allowing-him-to-continue-living-what
Former Indiana Supreme Court Justices Randall T. Shepard, Frank Sullivan, Jr., and Brent Dickson all deserve a good dose of vigilante justice for their extremely vile, despicable, and completely indefensible ruling in the Straub v. BMT case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straub_v._BMT_by_Todd
If I could actually permanently get away with doing this unpunished (and I can't), then I would absolutely LOVE TO beat the living daylights out of all three of these former Indiana Supreme Court Justices as well as to gouge their eyes out with a knife. Seriously. It would still be less bad than strangling someone to death with a cord, after all.
Hi Coyote. Thanks for the comment, but I really can't agree with your points on either this post subject, nor your stated views on the judges in the Straub v. BMT by Todd decision.
DeleteI think the key points here are that:
(a) Mr Sandison says that Dyer was telling him about his molestation of children, and trying to justify his paedophilia, and wouldn't stop when told to stop, and this drove him to kill him.
(b) Mr Sandison was already a convicted murderer, and he had little to lose by killing again, nor the moral compass to not kill (hence his existing life sentence).
So I would argue that it would be hard to say that Mr Sandison was carrying out a vigilante killing, as he wasn't enforcing the law, but merely removing a man whose views and personality annoyed him .. if he (Dyer) had shut up, he would have not been killed. "I told him to keep quiet and that he’d have to leave in the morning, find a new cell. But he continued to talk about it, try to justify it."
I would say that wanting to beat and blind three judges (if you get away with it), because you disagreed with their legal decisions, is obviously an extreme response (as opposed to taking political or legal measures to challenge the legal rulings), and would certainly be considered to be vigilante justice, which can be defined as the action of a single person, or group of people, who claim to be enforcing the law, or rather their view of the law, when no one else will (or they think its failed), but who lack the legal authority to do so.
Straub v. BMT by Todd
Not a case I had heard of until your posted comment. The Straub v. BMT by Todd ruling is apparently saying that you can't remove child's rights to financial support from one biological parent, by means of a contract between both biological parents before the child is born, where the child is conceived via sexual intercourse (as opposed to artificial insemination, which is covered by other laws).
Many people would say that was a sensible ruling that protected the future child's rights, not least as it would also stop some men forcing women sign bits of paper under duress, absolving them of any financial responsibility for any children resulting from a sexual relationship they were in with them.
But obviously, that's another subject entirely from the post, and not one I want to debate here. So I am sorry, but I won't be getting drawn into any discussion about that decision. However I may explore that subject in another post, if it comes up in another post that I'm writing in the future.
Did you ever actually read Justice DeBruler's dissent in that case and how he warned that the majority's logic in that case could also be used to strike down liability insurance?
DeleteAnyway, thanks for your commentary here. Sounds sensible enough, I suppose. But honestly, it's the result of crappy judges such as these that I literally have to spend thousands of dollars of my own money getting a bilateral epididymectomy done (shitty vasectomies fail WAY too frequently, and while urologists ARE willing to accept the risk of dying in a car accident, getting murdered, falling off of a ladder, and choking to death on a piece of food, they are NOT willing to accept the risk of paying all of my child support for me for 18+ years in the event of a goddamn sterilization failure). And God forbid if my bilateral epididymectomy were to ever fail after two successful/negative semen analyses:
https://www.quora.com/Why-exactly-does-the-idea-of-beating-a-hypothetical-unwanted-child-of-mine-to-an-extremely-bloody-pulp-in-the-event-of-a-bilateral-epididymectomy-failure-after-two-successful-negative-semen-analyses-sound-EXTREMELY
I've been trying to find child support insurance, but to no luck. Honestly, if in-vitro gametogenesis was already a thing, I might very well simply outright chop my balls off instead--though even this will cost thousands of dollars of my own money.
And by the way, when the Straub v. BMT by Todd case was at a lower court, Judge Linda Chezem said that Indiana law offers no protection even for sperm donors who donate sperm through artificial insemination:
https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/court-of-appeals/1993/10a04-9302-jv-53-8.html
But in any case, this wasn't actually relevant because Francine Todd's doctor told her that artificial insemination won't work for her.
Honestly, fuck those judges! I already e-mailed them telling them to go put a bullet in their own heads and calling them worthless pigs and worthless pieces of shit! Seriously. Whenever my own parents inquire as to why exactly I have to spend thousands of dollars of my own money on a goddamn bilateral epididymectomy, judges such as these are the reason why.
By the way, can you actually identify the injury that a child has suffered as a result of being brought into existence? Because if they actually prefer non-existence to existence, then they can go and take a goddamn cyanide pill! Seriously.
DeleteCoyote, I have allowed you the right of reply, or last word on this matter, as you obviously feel very strongly and indeed violently on the subject, and you perhaps haven't found any other platform on which to air your views, apart from the www.quora.com website.
DeleteI hope you feel satisfied by this opportunity to express your thoughts on this matter, but seriously bro, you either need to move on, or perhaps just use a condom. Its obviously a done deal in the courts, that you can't change except via law makers.
In any case, as it has nothing, or little to do with the post subject that I can see (and I clearly state below that post comments must be on topic), its not a subject that I care to debate further, and I will moderate any further comments that contain immoderate views about acts of violence.
I spent 13.6 years in the Michigan Dept of Corrections and: White Pedophiles are universally despised scorned and tormented in every way imaginable. Black and brown inmates are United by color. Homosexuality is rampant among ALL religions except the Nation of Islam. Moabite and Faggot tend to be virtually synonymous. I spent 8.9 years in detention and administrative segregation ( the hole ) for fighting and assault. White inmates who band together are targeted by inmates of color and the prison administrators.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to protect child molesters and abusers is to house them separately from others. A white pedophile in the MDOC has a miserable existence to put it mildly.
IMO Sandison is no hero. He is serving life for murder. What does he have to lose. Under his circumstance of being forced to share a cell with a pedophile he exercised his only option.
Thanks for the insight into Prison conditions in the MDOC and the comment .... I agree that as a now double murderer, Mr Sandison is no 'hero', but such is the general hatred for paedophiles that many agreed with his killing of Dyer. However it should be pointed out once again, that the killing was motivated as much by Dyer constantly annoying Mr Sandison, as it was about the nature of his crime.
Delete