"If Tears Could Build a Stairway"
With all due respect, and with outrage in my heart, the judge was, quite simply, wrong. Wrong, wrong. Wrong. Justice Brian Burrows, holding court in the trial of a group of sub-normal hominids ruled that the oldest among them, among the group of men who raped and murdered a beautiful vivacious young girl should be acquitted. Justice Burrows extinguished the guilt of a guilty man, expressing a peculiar version of justice, leaving the murdered girl's family to live out their anguished lives of justice unrealized.Nina Courtepatte, thirteen vulnerable years of age when she was so brutally attacked and her life taken from her, leaves behind a younger sister for whom the trauma of this particular life's experience may never permit her to live a normal life. The dead girl's mother, Peacha Atkinson, wept when 21-year-old Joseph Laboucan was pronounced guilty of first-degree murder. He was given a mandatory life sentence with no parole for 25 years, although under the 'faint hope' clause in 13 years' time he can apply for early parole.
Who would not weep - for the utter uselessness of it all. A murderer is tried, found guilty and sentenced. The life he took is gone. There is no return on the deposit of murder in the first degree or for that matter any degree; life is gone, forever. There is no surcease of sorrow, there is a huge yawning chasm of disbelief, sorrow and emptiness. "If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I would walk right up to heaven and bring you home again", Nina's mother promised her daughter.
There are times when words miss their mark, when mere letters forming words of explanation fail to convey the full measure of unassuagable grief. But Nina's mother Peacha managed somehow to bridge that gap when she informed the court how much her family's lives have been impacted, diminished, impoverished without the presence of the young girl whose presence was so precious to them, whom they so dearly loved.
The man whom Judge Burrows acquitted was the oldest among the deranged group of imbeciles who lured Nina from the West Edmonton Mall, drove her with a companion girlfriend to a secluded spot, sexually assaulted her and beat her to death with a sledgehammer on April 3, 2005. It was the acquitted man, Michael Briscoe, 36, who drove the group to the isolated golf course. He was present when the young girl was being raped and horrendously beaten. He did nothing to stop the assault.
Each time Peacha Courtepatte sees a young girl who resembles her murdered child her heart will shrivel in pain. Every year that passes will have her think of her child Nina, as being a year older; when Nina might have been certain sign-post ages in her development as a older teen, a young woman, her mother will recoil in the aching thought that comes to her mind unbidden of her dead child's lost opportunities to experience love, marriage, motherhood. Nina's mother will force herself to deal with her loss for the sake of her other daughter, but nothing can ever restore to her the peace of mind she once owned.
A degenerate primate passing itself off as a man remains free in the exuberance of freedom restored, to live his life in any manner to which he has become accustomed. What manner of social exchange can this represent in the pursuit of justice?
The judge erred, grievously. We're all the poorer for it.
Labels: Heroes and Villains
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, March 25, 2007
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