The Axiom Of Realistic Expectations
Individuals Demonstrate Valid Behavior
By Having Realistic Expectations
For Themselves, Their Lives, And Others
Frequently, when society learns of brutal violence and crime, such as the Columbine High School Massacre, there is considerable outcry for the creation of new laws to stop tragedies like these from happening again. This reaction is completely understandable because it is quite unsettling to accept that there are individuals out there who would and do actually commit such atrocities, and we want to make sure that no one else ever does anything so horrible.
We reach the conclusion that with more laws, crime will be prevented. Unfortunately, most of the time, there are already sufficient laws in place outlawing these disturbing criminal acts, which are committed in spite of the law. Therefore, instead of creating new laws, what our society must do in order to prevent these ghastly crimes is institute harsher punishments, specifically capital punishment, more often.
We need to face the fact that there are some crimes so egregious, so ruthless, that their perpetrators do not deserve the opportunity for rehabilitation, starting with those found guilty of sexual assault.
Currently flooding the news is the case of Phillip Garrido: "Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, will face 29 felony counts after being accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard when she was 11 and keeping her in their backyard since 1991." ("Couple Faces 29 Felony Counts, Life In Jail In Kidnapping") Their charges include "kidnapping someone under 14 years of age, kidnapping for sexual purposes, forcible rape and forcible lewd acts on a child. The maximum penalty for both defendants would be life imprisonment."
What makes this case so horrendous is that Phillip Garrido had already been convicted for kidnapping and raping Katie Calloway Hall in November of 1976, "but was released after serving just over 10 years of a 50-year sentence. He was labeled a sex offender and put on lifetime parole." ("Garrido Victim: 'He Had Me For 8 Hours. He Had Her For 18 Years'")
Sadly, Hall's terror lasted a lot longer than the 10 years of Garrido's incarceration:
"For years, I walked around like a zombie," she said. "I had to tell everyone I met what had happened to me -- because I didn't feel like myself. It was as if I had to explain why I wasn't 'normal.'" For her, that's the biggest pain Garrido put her through. "I was a good person. I lived right, and treated others well," she said. "He changed my life in an instant. I don't feel like I can ever be that person again. Being victimized is something that only a victim can understand. I hate that he did this to me, and I doubt I'll ever get over it."
Why does our society give sex offenders a second chance? How many times does an innocent victim have to die or suffer through years of captivity before we start saying enough is enough? Haven't we learned our lesson by now?
- Jessica Lundsford's murderer, John Evander Couey, was a registered sex offender before he kidnapped her from her bed, raped and held her for three days, and buried her alive.
- Dru Sjodin's murderer, Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr., was a registered sex offender before he kidnapped her, raped her, stabbed her, and left her dead, face down in a ravine.
- Elizabeth Smart's abductor, Brian David Mitchell, was "found guilty of exposing himself to a child" at 16 and later accused by his second wife of sexually assaulting her daughter and their 3-year-old son before he kidnapped Elizabeth, raping and holding her for nine months. (About.com: "Brian David Mitchell")
- Dylan Groene's murderer and Shasta Groene's abductor, Joseph Edward Duncan III, was sent to a juvenile home as a teenager for "[raping] a 9-year-old boy at gunpoint," where he told his therapist "he estimated that he had raped 13 younger boys by the time he was 16." (Wikipedia: "Joseph E. Duncan III") He continued to be in and out of jail before he beat Shasta and Dylan's mother, older brother, and mother's fiancé to death with a hammer, kidnapped the children, raped and held them for six weeks, and killed Dylan.
The list goes on and on.
America, the price our nation is paying is much too high to give perpetrators of sexual assault a second chance. They should be put to death after their first conviction, not let out on parole, not given the opportunity to ruin more people's lives.
You can now post comments on The Magna Sententia Official Site, and we would truly appreciate hearing your position on this subject. Please give your reasons why you agree or disagree so that as a society, we can begin an open dialogue about this issue and put a stop to such senseless violence.
Anna and Ellie Sherise
Creators of Magna Sententia
Authors of Magna Sententia: The Logical Cure for Our Society
garrido kidnap & enslavement
I agree about the horrific nature of the Garrido case - one that begs for the death penalty, that he will, you can be sure, never face. I have just published a book called The Anatomy of Evil, where I did include the Josef Fritzl case in Austria. He's the psychopath who built a bunker underneath his house and made a sex slave of his daughter Elisabeth, and then went ahead and had 7 children by his own daughter. She and the children were kept imprisoned for 24 years. It's hard to say whether the Garrido case was the same (in heinousness) or worse. He captured a stranger-girl, which meant that her parents were kept in a state of anguish for all those years. So Garrido tortured them psychologically, just as he tortured Jaycee physically and psychologically. But here's what troubles me about this monster: the Internet published an article 2 days ago, saying he suffered an accident falling off his motorcycle when he was 14; he was unconscious for a time. I know enough about men who have had accidents like that to know that some of them end up with damage in key areas of the brain that have to do with sex-behavior. The result is they become preoccupied with sadistic sexual fantasies, and some become rapists and even serial killers (like Arthur Shawcross and Richard Starrett). And then Garrido, having developed sadistic sex fantasies after the head injury - began to abuse LSD heavily a few years later. So that made him crazy altogether. He's now certifiably crazy (though not legally insane: he KNEW he was doing wrong or he wouldn't have kept Jaycee and the kids hidden). So California, that already has a terrible track record for dealing with violent sex offenders, will shunt him off, once the defense lawyers open their mouths, to a forensic hospital - like Atascadero. Instead of prison or death row. And they'll try to "treat" the guy, as if he could ever be fixed. He can eventually appeal for release, as though he's "all better now." I hope this doesn't happen, but I know it can happen, and in California, might very well happen.