Wednesday, February 14, 2007

At what point.... ?


Here's something else to chew on...

You might notice here that I generally talk about whatever's on my mind and don't consider whether it's a Hallmark holiday or not. This morning I wrote something that is clearly not of interest .. I've deleted it .. but there's been something else on my mind that might be a bit more interesting to others.

The picture above is a young girl named Jessica Lunsford. Last year, she was kidnapped, raped and killed by John Couey, a guy who is a drifter, a convicted sex offender and generally a bad dude. He kidnapped Jessica from her bedroom, hid her in a closet at his sister's home, raped her repeatedly and ultimately buried her alive. She died in a plastic garbage bag, clutching a stuffed dolphin. There were scratch marks on the inside of the bag where she used two of her little fingers to scratch her way out.

His trial started this week. Currently, they are in jury selection so aside from Couey's confession, we don't know what evidence might be presented to the jury. By the time they stop haggling with the judge, it will likely be a watered-down version of what actually happened.

I got to thinking... at what point does someone cease to be human? At what point is someone so far beyond redemption that there is no benefit in trying to make any sense of their actions or their reasoning?

I am anti-death penalty. I don't like it here and I don't like it in Thailand. There is something so final about it that it will never feel morally or ethically correct. I would not be willing to vote for the death penalty, no matter who was involved. I wouldn't choose the death penalty for Adolf Hitler himself. It's just not my place.

Couey is a horrid man. There is no doubt about that. He is a shell of a human being. He definitely needs to be isolated from the rest of humanity for the remainder of his life.

This would be my suggestion: Absolutely no human contact in prison. No media. No television. Nothing that can possibly provide fodder for his sick fantasies. I believe the best way to deal with someone like that, someone who is beyond redemption by the consequences of his own choices, is complete isolation.

It's said that people who are entirely isolated eventually go insane. Let the demons in his head eat away at him until he finally dies in a hell of his own creation.

May little Jessica finally find some peace.


Peace,


~Chani

17 comments:

meno said...

I have had to put my emotional wall up pretty high to even read about this case.

I'm sorry, but if he had hurt my child and i got ahold of him.....

I just couldn't be compassionate. just passionate.

But the state can be dispassionate. Is there truly a way to isolate this man forever, without a ridiculous amount of expense?

Stephen Newton said...

Chani,
Like the other girl that was murdered I mentioned in an earlier comment, this one points back to parental neglect. If Jessica's father had not left her alone at home while he was "with a friend" Couey may not have kipnapped her. Like Carli's mother, Jessica's father must also assume responsibility for abandoning his daughter, leaving her alone in the middle of the night for predators.

Liv said...

This case is so repugnant, that like meno, it takes a lot for me to even stomach reading about it again.

I can't say that I agree with the commenter before me. No person deserves what Jessica was subjected to, no matter where her parents in question were at the time. It still takes a person who is fiendish and deviant enough to commit such a horrendous crime against humanity. And that is what this is. Because each time that society (as it were)is made to be afraid, a crime has been committed.

I'm with you. Sensory deprivation. Rotting in his own depraved mind.

Anvilcloud said...

Never heard of this before, but what an absolute nightmare. I agree with you, however, although I might be tempted to add a daily dose of whipping.

Bob said...

aside from the moral considerations of a state-sanctioned death penalty, the death penalty is so unequally applied in this country it should not be allowed. There's federal laws with their penalties and there's 50 states laws with their penalties. What merits the death penalty in Texas does not result in a death sentence in Indiana - for instance. Also, penalties are unequally meted due to the fact that the wealthy and well connected have access to much better legal representation than the indigent who have to rely on poorly funded, overworked public defenders. The legal system is in essence for sale, with justice going to those with the deepest pockets. Within today's system, everyone might agree that this slime deserves to die, that the evidence is unequivocal. But not every capital case is as clear cut. If the state makes a mistake and someone is executed, when the mistake comes to light, they cannot be un-executed.

For this reason alone, there should not be a death penalty. There are others - the methods used to execute the condemned, the expense of capital trials and appeals, etc.

Who am I that I, on a jury, should decide whether someone should live or die?

Anonymous said...

Oh how you make us think beyond all the Valentine's day fluff... Maybe there should be trials to decide that very thing: wether or not someone still has the right to his or her humanity... that is the mother in me talking. The part of me that cannot possibly imagine how the parent's of that child, manage to go through the day.

dmmgmfm said...

What kind of monster could do this to a child? I don't know. But I can tell you if he did that to my child, I am quite certain I could pull the switch myself.

Anonymous said...

Reading your recent posts bring my though to the concern of “ sexpat” in Thailand.
More an more male “farang” retirees are making Thailand their first or second home, mostly for a main ( openly or hidden) reason of cheap thrills.

Purchased sex with girls age one third of these guys’ age is so common. The girl age normally around teen to twentieth - in some horrible cases it is getting younger. The sad evidence is in this news:

Asia-Pacific News


Feb 12, 2007, 11:31 GMT

Bangkok - Thai police arrested a German national over the weekend on charges of raping and abducting a minor, media reports said on Monday.

Police arrested the man, identified as 64-year-old Helmut Nils of Frankfurt, on Saturday shortly after the Udon Thani Court issued an arrest warrant for him on rape charges.

Police Colonel Manit Keowwong of Kudjap district, Udon Thani, 450 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, said Nils was arrested in a rented house with a 12 year-old Thai girl, said Thai Rath newspaper.

Police also found pornographic videos and a digital movie camera containing a clip of the girl doing a strip tease.

If found guilty of raping a minor, Nils faces a minimum jail sentenced of ten years in prison. Nils, a former computer technician, had been visiting Thailand on a regular basis for the past 15 years and was fluent in the language, police said.

SuperP. said...

I agree with your method of discipline.

Absolutely.

We are going through the trail of four people involved in luring a 13 year old girl from a mall under the pretense of a party and raping, beating her between her legs and atop her head with a sledge hammer and killing her.

They won't be rehabilitated. What will happen when they get out?

Jessica. Things like Jessica will happen.

I was against the death penalty for a long time.

I don't think I am anymore.

ellie bee said...

well, call me a redneck, but I wouldn't have a bit of trouble killing that slime wad. not.one.bit. but I'd have to torture him a bit first....

furthermore, is sentencing someone to a lifetime of total isolation so that they can slowly go insane any more humane?

sorry, I have no sympathy, empathy, or compassion for such total trash. Spend my taxes on better education for our kids, food for our poor, health care for our suffering, but not on keeping filth like this alive.

I once took care of a beautiful 4 year old who had been chained in a closet and used as a sex toy for her dad and whomever else he wanted a fix from for so long that she had callouses around her wrists and legs--he laughed when she came into the emergency room having seizures and his slimy lawyers fought having life support removed after she was pronounced brain dead so that he couldn't be charged with murder. Her name was Rose. I'll never forget her. Or any of the other hundreds of kids I've taken care of who have been abused.

No, I wouldn't have a bit of trouble.

ellie bee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LittlePea said...

I totally agree with you on this. It's horrible-disgusting ---there aren't enough words in the dictionary for this.

QT said...

Chani - Thank you for this post. It mirrors a trial going on here, only with a woman in her twenties that went to a junkyard to take pics of a car for sale for the newspaper. The owner of the junkyard attacked her, and kept her tied up in his trailer where he repeatedly raped her and invited his 16 year old nephew (who has confessed) to participate. This poor woman begged for her life for three days before they tried to kill her with various instruments, failing a couple of times before unearthing a pistol from the junkyard and shooting her several times, then burning her body.

I have a problem with the death penalty, yes I most certainly do. But I agree with a previous poster who said spend our money on schools and other programs. Stop wasting it on human filth.

Incidentally, the man charged with the above crime was in prison for a dozen or so years, wrongly accused of rape. He was freed on DNA evidence.

Hel said...

Stories like this makes me feel so sad.

Sad for the girl and the fear and pain she had to go through and sad for a person so far removed from compassion that he could do such a horrible thing.

We have terrible crimes against children in South Africa. Many people believe that raping a baby is the only cure for aids.

I used to believe in the death penalty until I saw footage of Sudam's execution. Now I just don't know.

Hel said...

Oi, I meant saddam. Blush

Pam said...

To think of what happend to this poor child makes me cry in anguish for her pain. I have two daughters and four granddaughters and if some animal did something that heinous to any of them I don't believe I'd want to see him live.

deezee said...

I am always proud when someone highlights a heinous crime and still states being against the death penalty. I second you.