Friday, August 24, 2007

IT'S HARD DECIDING A MAN'S LIFE

If you haven’t already, go read ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE, TWELVE ANGRY PEOPLE and THE VERDICT.

It is indeed hard deciding a man's life.

Tony stood up, and addressed the court. He said that he’d always maintained his innocence and that he would never hurt a child. He said he had three daughters of his own and he loved children.

Yeah, a little too much, I thought to myself. We had already come to a verdict at this point, and I had formed my opinion.

The judge said two things had stuck out to her during the trial. One was STUPID, she said she had never seen anything like that, and it was sad. She said the other thing was when the defendant said he had three daughters of his own. She said he had three daughters and he had done this.

She sentenced him to TWENTY years.

I have to admit, my heart sank just a bit. I did believe that Tony had done everything that Grace had said he’d done. One of the things that we had wanted to ask the judge was if Tony could get some counseling while he was in prison. We guessed that he had urges that he had problems dealing with and that maybe these two girls were the first time he had acted on them.

We were wrong.

After the court, the two lawyers spoke with us, asking us questions about the case.

The prosecutor said there was SO much that we didn’t know. He said that there were SIX children in Tony and STUPID’s house and there had been charges against him with two older daughters as well, but Kelly had been the only one he had plead guilty on. He said that Tony had been accused of raping STUPID’s sister before they had met, and she STILL went out with him.

The defense said that to be fair, the sister was a drug addict, so wouldn’t have made a creditable witness. He said, however, there was a “VERY POWERFUL” videotape of Grace at twelve, where she described what had happened to her in great detail. He asked the prosecution why he didn’t use it, and the man just shrugged.

In the end, I feel that the system did work for this man. We did everything we could to remain unbiased and fair. We looked at the evidence, and made judgments only on what was given us.

I walked out of the courthouse with two of the courtroom assistants. “It was hard, wasn’t it?” the man said to me, “deciding a man’s life.”

“It was,” I agreed.

“People think it’s easy. You go in there and just sit down and make a judgment. But you have twelve people with twelve different opinions. “ I nodded.

The women who had been there outside the jury door, helping us with anything we needed, the whole time, said: “Don’t feel bad. He would have gotten twenty years for one count or twenty for all three anyway. You did good.”

6 comments:

Gwyneth Bolton said...

Wow. That has me speechless. I just keep thinking the jury should have had all of that information. Sheesh... What if... Well, I guess the right thing happened and justice prevailed in this case. But it does make you wonder about other cases...

Gwyneth

Anonymous said...

I agree, Gwen. My why not just get you guys all the info? Man, anything could of happened. At least you found out all the other stuff, and aren't wondering too.

Tyhitia Green said...

Why did you feel badly? He should have gotten life. Courts always suppress evidence. I stated in the other post that child molesters have offended other children bythe time they go to court. It's a fact. The majority of them do. Look at that priest, I cannot remember his name, but by the time he went to trial, 250 children's lives were ruined...

I say put all of them on a damn island and let them rape each other. Even if this was his first offense, that does not excuse it. One child is one too many...period. That's why I'm leary about having kids because we live in a such a sick society, one that cares more about the pedophiles than the children...

Anonymous said...

I agree Gwen, what if they hadn't found him guilty? Too much to think about...

Anonymous said...

Oh, btw, great post.

Anonymous said...

酒店經紀PRETTY GIRL 台北酒店經紀人 ,禮服店 酒店兼差PRETTY GIRL酒店公關 酒店小姐 彩色爆米花酒店兼職,酒店工作 彩色爆米花酒店經紀, 酒店上班,酒店工作 PRETTY GIRL酒店喝酒酒店上班 彩色爆米花台北酒店酒店小姐 PRETTY GIRL酒店上班酒店打工PRETTY GIRL酒店打工酒店經紀 彩色爆米花