Joseph Druce was already serving a life sentence for murder when he decided that another prisoner at his prison should not leave alive. His target was John Geoghan, a 68-year-old former priest convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy and accused in civil lawsuits of having abused as many as 150 minors over several decades.
On August 23, 2003, Druce seized an opportunity to sneak into Geoghan’s cell and block the door with a book, making it difficult for the guards to get inside. There, he beat him and eventually strangled him.
But Druce never denied what had happened. Hours later, he confessed and said he had planned the murder for more than a month because he believed Geoghan would abuse children again when he was released. According to a police officer’s testimony, when the former priest begged for his life, Druce replied: “Your days are over. No more children for you”.
During his trial, he said he had been sexually abused as a child, and his defense argued that he suffered from a mental illness that prevented him from being held criminally responsible. The jury rejected that explanation and determined that the murder had been premeditated and committed with extreme cruelty.
In 2006, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and received another life sentence, this time without the possibility of parole. Before hearing the sentence, Druce stood by his position.
“These pedophiles must be stopped. That’s why I did it”, he told the judge. Then he added something else: “Just hold pedophiles accountable, just as you did me”.
The judge was unequivocal: Geoghan’s past did not make Druce his executioner. It was a story in which both victim and perpetrator bore responsibility for their own crimes, but where justice determined that one had no right to execute the other.