Death Penalty

I'm sitting here watching the movie "In The Name Of The People", starring Richard Thomas, Scott Bakula and Amy Madigan.  It's about a man on death row for the murder of a teenage girl.  He has a young daughter himself.

I've seen it before, it's a good movie but sad.  The movie makes you think.  It shows a side of the senseless cruel crime of murder that we don't often think about.  The man on death row has his mother taking care of his child but his mother's health isn't good.  The girls grandmother dies and there's no one to care for the man on death rows little girl. 

I don't know how I feel about the death penalty.  Sometimes with a heinous crime, I think the DP is warranted.  Other times I don't know that that is the right thing to do.  This movie makes the confusion even stronger.  How do you explain to a child, that what their parent has done by killing someone is so wrong, yet the state turns around and kills the killer...how confusing that must be to an innocent child.  How do you justify that to a child?   I don't know. 

Often times when we hear of a killing, we are quick to say put them to death for their crime.  We don't often think about the family's of the one who committed the crime.  Aren't they a victim too?  I believe if they didn't know what was going on and there wasn't anything they could do to stop what happened, they are.  Especially the children. 

We can't say, "oh well, this person has children so we can't put them to death", as that isn't even feasable, alot of murderers and rapists, child predators, etc., do have children of their own. 

I feel so sorry for the little girl in this movie.  The kids at school are cruel to her.  Someone puts a drawn picture of a man hanging on her locker.  The same day, a boy after school sees her walking his way and takes the winter scarf around his neck and pulls it up like he's hanging, for her to see.  (She beats him up and good for her)  Kids can be so cruel.

The recent killings in Ohio, where they found the 13 yr old girl in the perps basement, tied up & gagged, her mother, brother and family friend missing.  The killer a few days after arrested, tells LE where the bodies of the girls family is.  He killed them, put them in garbage bags and hoists them up inside a hollow tree.  When they pull the victims out of the tree, the family dog is also inside, also killed.  This man's been in prison before...for arson.  Setting fire to an apt. complex with 16 people inside.  Sixteen people who could have died in that fire.  My opinion, they should have charged him with 16 counts of attempted murder plus the arson and kept his sorry ass in prison.  Now look what he escalated to.  Does he deserve the death penalty?  He does in my opinion.

Zahra Bakers killer(s)?  Do they deserve the death penalty?  My gosh, that little girl battled cancer, lost a leg and most of her hearing and survived.  Only to be abused and treated like shit, then to be killed, her body taken apart and scattered around in several different areas.  I'm not buying the evil stepmothers claims that they didn't kill her, that she found her dead.  I don't know what the father's part in all this is.  I think the stepmother killed her though.  If Zahras father cut her body up and disposed of her, he's just as evil as his wife.

Another teenage girl is missing, 15 yrs old.  They believe she is with her 44 year old uncle, who is a convicted sex predator.  Are they going to find her alive?  The father found inappropriate sexual text messages on his daughters phone from his OWN BROTHER.  He takes her phone away from her?  He punishes the 15 yr old child, but doesn't turn his brother in to law enforcement, knowing that his brother has been convicted of sex crimes?   I heard a short interview with the mother of the 15 yr old.  She was very evasive and making excuses, and basically lied when asked questions about why the uncle was allowed to stay in the same house as her daughter.  She said he wasn't staying there...and he wasn't, because he'd been kicked out after the text messages were found. 
Is there any blame on her own parents?  In my opinion, there is.  They should have called the law and turned him in.  He would have went to jail and not been out to take off with her.

Every day we turn the tv or radio on, or pick up a newspaper another child's life is lost.  Many at the hands of a parent, or mommy's boyfriend/daddy's girlfriend.  Many of the mothers know the man is abusive and has harmed the child before.  How do we stop this?  I'm appalled at the short sentences many of these child killers get off with.  If they started giving life for a child's life that is taken, would that make a difference?  What if they made it mandantory DP?  SOMETHING has got to work to make these people think before they take the life of an innocent child!!!!!!

I know there are a handful of people that will read this and question why I don't have the same sympathy for the Smith family.  I'll tell you why.  They knew Kelsey was being abused and did absolutley nothing to stop it or prevent what happened to her in the end.  They can claim innocence all they want, but the facts prove that Kelsey was being hurt before she was taken away from Raye Dawn, she wasn't hurt or have bruises the entire time she was out of Raye Dawns care, but immediately upon return to Raye Dawn, she was being injured and bruised again.  THAT FAMILY SAW KELSEY deteriorate the last months of her life....none of the Briggs family was in her life during that time, so there was NO WAY that any of them were hurting Kelsey.  That left Raye Dawn and Mike Porter.  They knew it was one of the two and still did nothing to help Kelsey.  THAT is why I have no sympathy for them.  NONE.  Those that saw Kelsey those last months are just as responsible for not helping save that little girl.  And if Gayla covered up what RD did to Kelsey that day, she should be in jail too.  She knows something...she was on the phone that day with RD during the time that Kelsey & RD were supposedly napping.  Prood?  Gayla's phone records were subpeoned by Porters attorney.   WHY did neither of them mention that?  Why didn't the DA investigate that?  WHY, WHY, WHY???