That's what people do, though. I mean people even had him convicted and found guilty in their minds before the was even arrested.
Nick is an idiot and prone to saying stupid shit he knows isn't true. He would say "Kentucky doesn't exist", pretend to be Canadian and say he was a fan of TMBG just to impress a girl. He was an attention whore of the highest caliber. He would go into tinychat a few times back in the old /cwc/ days and say that pedophilia isn't bad and if you say it is illegal, he would say, "so? it still isn't bad" and it would get a rise out of everyone. People got to be righteously indignant with Nick and he got their attention. The problem is that people actually took it serious, so now we are where we are.
People in this very thread were joking about how Nick "hung himself" by saying the wrong thing and that his lawyer was a fool. If this were any other crime they would be balking at how the proceedings played out and would welcome an appeal for the man. I had spoke to Nick in tinychat and on AIM before, and while he seemed like someone who would tell a tall tale to get attention, I am not entirely convinced he is capable of doing what he had allegedly done.
I have to agree with you on this, PZ that people do seem to be unhealthily invested in lolcows and the elements they are invested in with Nick speak to a grim aspect of the community. Their lives do not become any better if he gets the book thrown at him, but their lives are better if REAL justice is served. This is what we should wish for, not for punitive actions by the court. If he did do what he was found guilty of, then yes incarcerate and rehabilitate, but to ponder what that means would be boring to most, so this is the discussion we get. In some ways when we ponder monsters like Nick we become monsters ourselves.