Inmate Guilty In Pedophile Priest Slay

The inmate who strangled child-molesting priest John Geoghan was convicted of murder Wednesday after failing to convince a jury he was delusional when he killed one of the central figures in the Boston Archdiocese sex scandal.

Joseph Druce, 40, was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

After hearing the verdict, he looked at the jury that rejected his insanity defense and said, "It's all right. Good job." As the jurors filed out of the courtroom, he said: "No hard feelings. Have a good night."

Druce sneaked into Geoghan's prison cell in August 2003, jammed the door shut with a book, then beat the 68-year-old Geoghan and strangled him with stretched-out socks before guards could step in.

Druce's attorney argued that he was insane at the time and believed God had chosen him to kill Geoghan and send a message to pedophiles around the world. Prosecutors, however, argued that Druce was a conniving killer who planned the murder for weeks so he could be a "big shot" in prison.

"This state does not have capital punishment, and if it did ... you would not be the person to carry it out," Judge Francis Fecteau told Druce during sentencing.

Druce responded, "I was chosen, though," before the judge told him not to speak.

When Druce was allowed to speak, he gave a rambling speech in which he said he killed Geoghan to stop him from molesting children. Druce also said he accepted his punishment.

"Hold the pedophiles accountable, as well as myself," he said.

The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for about seven hours over two days.

Afterward, Druce's lawyer, John LaChance, acknowledged the long odds of succeeding with an insanity defense.

"With the killing of a person, and when the defendant admits he did it, I think juries are very reluctant to acquit on any basis," he said. "It appears obvious to me that there's a mental illness there."

At the time of the slaying, Geoghan was serving up to 10 years in prison for fondling a 10-year-old boy, but was accused in lawsuits of molesting some 150 youngsters. His case helped spark the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church after records released under court order revealed that the archdiocese transferred Geoghan from parish to parish despite the allegations against him.

In 2002, the archdiocese settled with 86 of Geoghan's victims for $10 million.

Druce took the stand and described a troubled childhood in which his father beat him. He said he was molested as a boy at a school for troubled children.

Jury foreman Thomas Wiegand said jurors felt sympathy for Druce because of the failings of the system that treated him.

"Everyone agreed he has a mental illness. It's the degree that is always the question," said Wiegand, a retired college administrator.

Druce said he was driven to kill after hearing Geoghan advising other inmates how to molest children and describing how he planned to move to South America after being released so he could resume working with youngsters.

"I had seen myself as the designated individual who had to put a stop to the pedophilia in the church," Druce said.

But prosecutor Lawrence Murphy pointed out that Druce spent two hours stretching socks into the rope used to strangle Geoghan, and made friendly visits to Geoghan's cell so the defrocked priest would not suspect anything when he came to kill him.

"He was not a mentally ill person, raging out of control," Murphy said in his closing argument. "He's a calculating individual who waited for his opportunity."

The prosecutor urged the jurors not to let Geoghan's pedophilia influence their decision. "No one likes pedophiles, but we can't go around grabbing pedophiles and killing them," Murphy said. "The law doesn't give Mr. Druce that right."

Even if he had been found not guilty by reason of insanity, Druce would not have gone free but would have been sent to a state mental hospital. He is already serving a life sentence for killing a man who allegedly made a pass at him after picking Druce up hitchhiking. He unsuccessfully used an insanity defense during that 1989 trial, too.

Geoghan's slaying led to sharp criticism of the prison system for allowing a notorious child-molesting priest like Geoghan to be put in the same unit as Druce, a convicted killer.

After Geoghan's slaying, authorities found serious failures in the inmate classification system, disciplinary procedures and investigative practices of the Correction Department, but no evidence that guards set Geoghan up to be killed.

The prison superintendent who ordered Geoghan's transfer to the institution where he was killed was removed.

Druce repeatedly claimed during the trial that he was being harassed and abused by prison guards. He arrived in court Wednesday with a black eye and a welt on his face that his lawyer said was the result of a jailhouse beating.

The Correction Department disputed the claim, saying that prison surveillance video showed no evidence of a beating and that Druce has a long history of injuring himself.