Genuine questions about retributive justice after another (efficient) LWOP plea for mass murderer

This CNN story out of Florida, headlined “Man admits murdering 4 relatives on Thanksgiving, gets life in prison,” reports on another notable mass murderer coping a plea to avoid a death sentence.  As I prepare to hit the road again and head off line, I am hopeful this post might prompt some extended engagement from fans of retributive justice about whether they would call this case an example of justice or injustice.   First, the basics:

A Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering four relatives on Thanksgiving Day in 2009, avoiding a possible death sentence after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. After hearing from relatives of the victims, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Marx sentenced Paul Merhige to seven life terms. As part of the agreement, the defendant agreed to waive any rights of appeal.

“You’ll never see the light of day,” Marx told the 37-year-old Merhige on Thursday, in front of a packed West Palm Beach courtroom….

Merhige was arrested in January 2010 at a Florida Keys motel after an “America’s Most Wanted” viewer recognized him…. Merhige was then charged with four counts of premeditated murder and three counts attempted first-degree murder in the Thanksgiving night shooting deaths of his twin sisters, a 6-year-old cousin and a 79-year-old aunt at a family home in Jupiter, Florida.

One of the victims — Lisa Knight, 33, who was one of Merhige’s sisters — was pregnant. Her husband, Patrick, was one of two other family members who survived after being wounded in the shooting rampage, authorities said. Family members suggested in interviewers that Merhige “had ongoing resentment” for some of his relatives, Jupiter Police spokeswoman Sally Collins-Ortiz said shortly after the shootings.

Patrick Knight, who was shot in the stomach, was among the family members who told the judge Thursday that he approved the plea deal. He explained that he wanted to “pick up the pieces” and did not want to endure “20 years” of appeals.   But Jim Sitton, whose 6-year-old daughter, Makayla, was among those gunned down, objected to the agreement as he wanted Merhige to go on trial and potentially face the death penalty….

The start of Merhige’s trial had been set for January.  His public defenders had filed court documents expressing their intent to defend him using an insanity defense. After Thursday’s court proceeding, State Attorney Michael McAuliffe released a statement in which he said that — “after careful evaluation and consideration” — he decided to accept Merhige’s plea, having determined it is “an appropriate resolution to the case.”

Noting the disparate opinions among the victims’ family members and about the death penalty generally, McAuliffe said he felt it sufficient that Merhige “will have no hope of having favorable rulings by a court” and “will have no ability to affect … the lives of those he harmed. I believe that seven consecutive life sentences recognize the heinous nature of the crimes and adequately punish the defendant,” he said.

I am interested in retributivist perspectives on this case in part because I think fans of utilitarian theory could and should be pleased or at least content with how this tragic case has been resolved.  Due to this plea deal saving great time/energy and the imposition of an LWOP sentence, it is not hard for a committed utilitarian to believe and assert that adequate crime control benefits have been achieved here at limited costs.  (Of course, strong utilitarian believers in DP deterrence may be troubled a death sentence was not sought, but the lurking insanity issue should prompt a thoughtful utilitarian to acknowledge that an LWOP sentence was a likely actual or functional final outcome of this case even if death had been vigorously pursued.)

But I have no sense at all about how those committed to retributivist perspectives on punishment would now assess this case.  I assume some (many?) retributivists who agree with Kant that justice demands execution of all murderers may be troubled that Merhige will not be killed by the state.  And yet, I assume that even hard-core Kantians make some exception for truly insane killers, through it is unclear whether Merhige was truly insane when he committed his murders.  

Meanwhile, I know that there are some (many?) other retributivists who think nobody ever deserves a death sentence no matter how horrific the crime.  Are these retributivists happy abut the outcome here, or are they instead deeply troubled that Merhige pleaded guilty based on the threat of an (unjust) death sentence?  

And, for all retributivists, how much should the fact that Merhige killed so many people factor in to the justice analysis?  How about the fact that the victims were Merhige’s relatives (i.e., does that make him more or less blameworthy)?  And where and how in the retributive justice analysis does the different sentiments of the surviving victims factor in?

As my post title is meant to make clear, my questions here are all very genuine because it is cases like this one that for me raise the most questions about how retributive justice should be assessed in real hard cases involving mass murderers with some arguments in mitigation.  I can readily understand how fans of utilitarian theory unpack and assess this kind of hard case (and other kinds of hard cases), but I am truly eager to hear comments from fans of retributivist theory about how unpack and assess this kind of hard case (and other kinds of hard cases).