A few years back I interviewed the late Marvin E. Wolfgang, who was the Director of the Sellin Center for Studies in Criminology and Criminal Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Wolfgang, the author of "The Subculture of Violence," is considered by many in the field to be the most influential criminologist in the English-speaking world.

    Sitting with him in his office on the Penn campus in Philadelphia, he told me he strongly opposed the death penalty and that it did not in fact serve as a deterrent.

    As a supporter of the death penalty, I responded that I knew this and added that I also knew criminals never think they are going to be caught. They generally don’t think that far ahead and some don’t think at all. But I didn’t think that mattered, I said. A death sentence will surely deter that one particular criminal from ever committing another murder.

    A 1993 Supreme Court ruling allowed states to impose the death penalty for murders that show "utter disregard for human life." The case stemmed from an Idaho man who admitted to killing 40 people. The Idaho Supreme Court had previously ruled that utter disregard was one of seven aggravating factors that allow murderers to be put to death. The court used the words "cold-blooded, pitiless slayer" to describe this murderous overachiever who, while already serving time for committing multiple murders, beat to death another inmate.

    Another case of killers killing in prison occurred a little closer to my home. This case involved not one, but two men, serving time on the death row unit at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

    Last year a jury in Freehold, New Jersey found that Ambrose Harris had acted in self-defense when he brutally beat and killed his fellow death-row inmate Robert "Mudman" Simon in 1999. But there are no innocents in this story, save the victims of Simon and Harris.

    Simon, casually referred to in the press and even by former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman as "Mudman" - as if he were a recognizable one-name entertainer like Madonna or Prince - was killed as he entered the indoor recreation module of the death row unit. Violence, more than the state supplied board games, was the recreational activity of choice for both Simon and Harris.

    According to the grand jury testimony of one of the prison correctional officers, Simon entered the "rec cage" and charged Harris. The officer rang the riot bell as he witnessed Harris slam Simon to the ground and continually punch him about the face. When Simon stopped struggling, Harris got up and began to kick him in the face. The corrections officers, who were not armed, did not enter the cage or attempt to break up the fight, which lasted little more than a minute. No weapon was used, officials said – or needed, I might add.

    When announcing that Harris would be indicted for Simon’s murder, Mercer County Prosecutor Daniel G. Giaquinto said Simon died from massive cranio-facial injuries that were consistent with having been inflicted by someone forcefully and repeatedly stomping on his face.

    Simon, a beefy, scraggly long-haired and long-bearded 48-year-old outlaw biker, was a real sweetheart. He was convicted in 1974 for killing his girlfriend after she refused to cooperate in her gang rape by Simon’s friends and fellow Warlocks. While serving time for that heinous murder at Graterford Prison in Philadelphia, he knifed and killed another inmate in 1984. Like his future killer, Simon pleaded self-defense and was acquitted. Despite his two killings, Simon was paroled.

    Only 11 weeks later, Simon murdered police Sgt. Ippolito (Lee) Gonzalez in Gloucester County, New Jersey. Well, so much for rehabilitation. His third murder earned him the death penalty. While on death row, he was known to brag that he had in fact murdered a fourth person.

    Harris, another sweetheart, was on death row for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 22-year-old Kristen Huggins in 1992. Prior to his death sentence, he was serving a life term in prison and required to serve 30 years without parole as a persistent offender from an unrelated 1993-armed robbery conviction.

    Just out of prison in 1992 after serving 13 years, Harris and a woman companion attacked Huggins, a graphic artist on her way to do a job. Harris placed her in the trunk of her car and they drove off. Harris later sodomized her, shot her in the head and buried her.

    Harris’ partner in crime contacted the police months later and said she was a psychic who could lead them to the missing young woman. Her dubious story of course came quickly unglued and she confessed to her role in the kidnapping and slaying of Huggins. She agreed to testify against Harris.

    According to news accounts, when Harris was sentenced in 1996, he was asked if he had anything to say to the victims’ parents, who were in attendance. Harris turned and suggested that Huggins’ parents apologize to him. His outburst caused the judge to remove him from the courtroom.

    The race factor often enters the death penalty debate, but Simon happened to be white and Harris happened to be black. Race played no part in their convictions and death sentences and it probably had little to do with their prison altercations and ultimate death match.

    New Jersey has not executed a prisoner since 1963, so unremorseful convicted murderers like Harris and Simon are kept housed in New Jersey’s death row.

    In the end, Mudman Simon encountered someone there even bigger, meaner and deadlier than he was. It is, in a sense, justice. Sometimes, here on earth and in the states of New Jersey and California, it’s all we have.