This American Life and Moral Responsibility

Here's a link to a recent episode of This American Life that's brimming with free will/moral responsibility implications. It's the story of a group of prisoners who spend six months rehearsing and staging Act V of Hamlet for their fellow inmates. Many of the actors are murderers, rapists, or child molesters. One of them, Danny, has been in the high security prison for 14 years for murder. He says that when he first got there he thought he ought to die in prison. He was a danger to people outside of it. But, he says, a person changes. "I'm not the criminal I used to be. I know I won't commit any more crimes if I'm out there. But... I took a man's life. Do I deserve to be out there? I cannot say." This is the notion of the desert that I believe is at the center of the moral responsibility debate.

It's an extremely moving story, highly recommended.