Should we be pleased or frustrated when an accused murderer commits suicide while in custody?

The provocative question in the title for this post is inspired by this breaking news via CNN, which is headlined "Police: Accused Craigslist killer dead of apparent suicide."  Here are the story basics:

A onetime medical student who was facing charges including first-degree murder in a killing tied to the Craigslist website died Sunday of an apparent suicide, police said.  Philip Markoff was found in his Nashua Street Jail cell at 10:17 a.m. Sunday and pronounced dead by medics, said Steven Tompkins, spokesman for the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Sheriff's Office.

Markoff, 24, was charged with the April 14, 2009, fatal shooting and attempted robbery of Julissa Brisman, 25, at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Police said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craiglist, a popular online classifieds service, and said Markoff may have met her through the site.

Markoff was also charged with the April 10, 2009, robbery of Trisha Leffler at a Westin Hotel in Boston. Police reports said Leffler was robbed of $800 in cash and $250 in American Express gift cards and was held at gunpoint and bound....

He also was facing charges in an April 16, 2009, incident at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island. In that incident, police said Markoff tied up and demanded money from a 26-year-old dancer who had posted a Craigslist advertisement. The robbery was interrupted when the woman's husband entered the room, and the suspect fled after pointing his gun at the husband, according to Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney.

At the time of his April 2009 arrest, Markoff was a second-year student at Boston University's School of Medicine and was engaged to be married. His friends and acquaintances expressed shock, describing him as a model student and the "all-American" guy.

A woman identifying herself as Megan McAllister, his fiancee, maintained his innocence in an April 2009 e-mail sent to ABC News, saying Markoff "is the wrong man" and "was set up." "Unfortunately, you were given the wrong information as was the public," she said. "All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!" Markoff's attorney had also proclaimed his innocence.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters last year that Brisman's death was "a brutal, vicious crime -- savage. And it shows that Philip Markoff is a man who's willing to take advantage of women -- to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them." Brisman sustained blunt head trauma, and was shot three times at close range, prosecutors said. Conley said they believe the motive for her death was robbery.

In executing a search warrant at Markoff's home, police found a firearm, along with restraints and duct tape, he said. Surveillance videos from the hotel where Brisman was killed showed a tall, clean-cut young blond man in a black windbreaker leaving the property, according to Boston police, who had sought public assistance in identifying the man.

Of course, if Philip Markoff truly was innocent of murder, his suicide compounds the tragedy of a wrongful accusation (and further heightens the risk that the real killer will never be sought or found).  But assuming he was guilty, my first reaction here is to be pleased.  By killing himself, Markoff saved a lot of time, money and energy for those who would be tasked with prosecuting and defending him.  And the family of his victim would, I hope, get some measure of closure from Markoff's death.

I wonder, however, if everyone share my reaction, which is obviously very utilitarian.  For anyone who embraces a more retributivist or expressive/educative or even restorative justice perspective, perhaps Markoff's death is more frustrating than pleasing.  By taking his own life, Markoff in a sense was able to escape the traditional societal process of seeking and imposing justice on a wrong-doer.  (I suppose a deeply religious retributivist might take comfort in the notion he will meet justice in the afterlife, but I am not even sure if a belief in this kind higher justice is enough to make one pleased Markoff sped his own journey to the afterlife.)

UPDATE:  I notice that Ashby Jones over at the WSJ Blog here (and now also Above the Law here) has picked up on my comments in this post, which reinforces my sense that my (too frank?) comments or perhaps my inopportune choice of words has touched a nerve.  In addition to prompting a lot of interesting and strong comments below, this post has led to me getting at least one hateful anonymous comment via e-mail. 

If anyone finds this post offensive, I hope they will explain just what bothers them and why.  I surmise from some comments that the fact that Philip Markoff had not been duly convicted in a court of law is consequential.  For others, perhaps the terms I use or my particularly cold utilitarian analysis is disquieting.  Whatever the particulars, I hope the discussion continues (ideally without having to receive any more hateful anonymous e-mails).