Celebrity Justice
Rebecca Schaeffer's Killer Stabbed

Killer Robert John Bardo, who was convicted of stalking and killing actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, was stabbed by another inmate yesterday. Bardo was stabbed 11 times while he and fellow inmates were walking to breakfast in the prison yard, according to Mule Creek State Prison officials. He survived the attack.


Schaeffer was the star of the 1980s sitcom "My Sister Sam." Bardo was obsessed with Schaeffer and stalked her for several months. He eventually tracked her down with the help of a private detective, and shot her to death when she answered the door of her L.A. home. She was 21.

The suspect identified as responsible for stabbing Bardo is serving an 82-years-to-life sentence for second-degree murder. Bardo was 19 when he stalked and killed Schaeffer. He is serving life without parole. The case led to the classification of stalking as a felony in California.

Tags: rebecca schaeffer, RebeccaSchaeffer

Reader Comments

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16. he gets to eat?

Posted at 7:03PM on Jul 28th 2007 by tightwad

17. wha should have happened is the bastard getting his neck snapped and die from severe internal bleeding, much like the doctors family killers,the two of them should be slowly and PAINFULLY tortured to where they feel the intense pain of what the women suffered.

Posted at 5:16PM on Jul 28th 2007 by trainman66

18. Yes, let's execute some innocent people, that's what America stands for.
The exhaustive appeal process has allowed for new evidence (particularly DNA) to exonerate many people sentenced to die. The alternative is that we are careless and kill those who aren't guilty.
That is barbaric and not something any thinking, decent human being would approve of, particularly when the alternative is life imprisonment and never returning to the outside world.

Posted at 2:55PM on Jul 28th 2007 by seanflynn

19. Man, you people are cruel and sound evil yourselves. Don't you understand that you are what you think all.day.long? Get a friggin life.

Posted at 12:33PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Max

20. Posted at 12:20PM on Jul 28th 2007 by seanflynn
It is more expensive to taxpayers to execute someone than to have him get a life sentence. Far, far more expensive.
And life imprisonment is a horrible sentence as well - don't doubt that for a minute.
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THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT'S TRUE.
You take him off the face of the earth, and we no longer pay for him to live. How id execution more expensive than that???

You are seriously going to have to provide US ALL with proof of this comment, because I beg to differ your point.



Posted at 12:36PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Petite

21. "Man, you people are cruel and sound evil yourselves. Don't you understand that you are what you think all.day.long? Get a friggin life."

Ohhh, a "friggin life." Yum. That sounds kinda naughty and kinda fun.

I'll take two, please!

Posted at 12:37PM on Jul 28th 2007 by emme

22. Here you go:

The Economics of Capital Punishment



Contention:
Sentencing a prisoner to life in prison is a better allocation of resources than sentencing him to be executed.

First I'll present figures representing the dollar costs of capital punishment versus life in prison/no parole. Then I'll discuss the deterrent effect as the only legitimate rational justification for capital punishment. Then I'll discuss the externalities of capital punishment.

A Duke University study found... "The death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life." ( The costs of processing murder cases in North Carolina / Philip J. Cook, Donna B. Slawson ; with the assistance of Lori A. Gries. [Durham, NC] : Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, 1993.)

"The death penalty costs California $90 million annually beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system - $78 million of that total is incurred at the trial level." (Sacramento Bee, March 18, 1988).

"A 1991 study of the Texas criminal justice system estimated the cost of appealing capital murder at $2,316,655. In contrast, the cost of housing a prisoner in a Texas maximum security prison single cell for 40 years is estimated at $750,000." (Punishment and the Death Penalty, edited by Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum 1995 p.109 )

"Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988 to achieve 18 executions - that is an average of $3.2 million per execution."
(Miami Herald, July 10, 1988).

"Florida calculated that each execution there costs some $3.18 million. If incarceration is estimated to cost $17000/year, a comparable statistic for life in prison of 40 years would be $680,000."
(The Geography of Execution... The Capital Punishment Quagmire in America, Keith Harries and Derral Cheatwood 1997 p.6)

Figures from the General Accounting Office are close to these results. Total annual costs for all U.S. Prisons, State and Federal, was $17.7 billion in 1994 along with a total prison population of 1.1 million inmates. That amounts to $16100 per inmate/year.
(GOA report and testimony FY-97 GGD-97-15 )

From this; the cost of keeping a 25-year-old inmate for 50 years at present amounts to $805,000. Assuming 75 years as an average life span, the $805,000 figure would be the cost of life in prison. So roughly it's costing us $2 million more to execute someone than it would cost to keep them in jail for life. This is just the dollar cost, the externalities will be discussed in a moment.

Posted at 12:47PM on Jul 28th 2007 by seanflynn

23. Seanflynn...I think she lived on North Sweetzer.

Posted at 1:02PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Prince Romanoff

24. I agree with Number 10 wholeheartedly, well said!

Posted at 12:54PM on Jul 28th 2007 by murph

25. What can I say? The system works!

Posted at 1:03PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Hardy Har Har

26. Too bad he didn't die!

Posted at 1:05PM on Jul 28th 2007 by nickers

27. 6. His state must not have had the death penality. Here in Texas, he would have swung! We like the death penality here, and you can count on that never changing.

Posted at 12:12PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Petite
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Your death penalty which is supposed to be a deterrent to crime doesn't seem to work. Last time I looked your prisons were overflowing and crime was still rampant. What's the point?? The state is allowed to legally kill people while saying it is wrong to kill??? The bible says thou shalt not kill...which applies to everyone including the very officials who condemn killing. Double standard don't you think?

Posted at 1:09PM on Jul 28th 2007 by double standards...

28. seanflynn, thank you for those stats and reference points. I will be looking into this, out of curiosity now.
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21.Posted at 1:02PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Prince Romanoff
Seanflynn...I think she lived on North Sweetzer.***************
************I asked for stats, and I received them. Your comments are unnessary.*******





Posted at 1:11PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Petite

29. Well he wouldn't have survived the attack had the guards just let him die in a corner..

Posted at 1:12PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Jem Jensen

30. I remember "My Sister Sam" very well. It was an innocuous piece of fluff saved by the wonderful chemistry between Rebecca and Pam Dawber. Hard to believe so many years have gone by...

Posted at 1:12PM on Jul 28th 2007 by Prince Romanoff

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