On August 4th, John MacKenzie committed suicide in his cell at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y. Spending over forty years in prison, John MacKenzie confessed his crimes, kept a “spotless” disciplinary record, earned a degree in business and the arts, and created a program in which victims could talk to inmates about the inmates’ crime (Jesse Wegman A18). However, the parole board refused to overlook the murder of Police Officer Matthew Giglio in fear of disrespecting the law. Frustrated with the parole commissioners, MacKenzie stated in an essay that “giving a man legitimate hope is a laudable goal; giving him false hope is utterly inhuman” (qtd. in Jesse Wegman A18). Socrates believes that rhetoric should better one’s soul.
