Bev,
With all due respect, I still do not see what your solution would or should be in the event that Casey is adjudged guilty at her upcoming trial.
What type of punishment do you deem would be appropriate for having murdered that precious baby? Do you even think that she should be punished? Should we simply forgive her and send her on her merry way to potentially commit this same type of behavior down the road again?
Allowing for forgiveness is one thing--certainly anyone can be forgiven for their actions--however, in our society someone who commits a crime is also subject to receiving just punishment.
Forgiveness for crimes such as rape and murder does nothing if punishment is not also meted out--it simply says, "It's okay whatever heinous act you committed. We forgive you. There will be no punishment, so you are now free to go out and commit this type of horrendous crime, or worse, again. Peace be with you."
As a daughter, sister and granddaughter of mentally ill family members, I have a lot of compassion for those who are so afflicted. My father was a paranoid schizophrenic who brutally attacked my step-mother, cutting her face so severely with the bottom of a broken beer mug that she required almost 3500 stitches to her face. She endured 17 surgeries to put her face back together again. For this act, my father was hospitalized in a mental institution for many years, and when he was finally released back into society, he committed suicide.
My grandfather was a paranoid schizophrenic who traumatized the entire family with his abuses and rage. He drank himself to death at an early age.
My sister was a paranoid schizophrenic with anti-social personality disorder. She lied her way through life, stealing from anyone and everyone, and could weave stories more complex and detailed than those we have seen from Casey. Talk about scary. She committed suicide in September, rather than face the music for having deceived her husband of 18 years, and her children who are now 28 and 26 years old. Her entire life story, in their view and now in retrospect, was a complete falsehood. Nothing about her past, as she had related to them, was the truth. They are still struggling to come to terms with the deception, nevermind her last selfish act of taking her own life.
Throughout my life, I have watched these family members commit crimes, and even after I spoke with law enforcement in hopes that they would be charged with crimes and jailed (thinking that it MIGHT change their behavior), nothing was done.
When I found out that my father had exposed himself to a woman in a parking lot and subsequently arrested, I was outraged and when he went to court, I asked that he please be put in jail. He was given a very light sentence of 6 months probation and put back on the streets. It was his first offense.
When my sister stole DOZENS of identities and bought cars, furniture, clothing and jewelry, sold drugs on the street, and spread her AIDS around like it was a gift, I begged law enforcement to PLEASE incarcerate her. These felonious acts were never even dealt with, not in court, not in a mental institution, not in any manner. Putting either of them in a mental hospital would have been nothing more than a little vacation away from home. It certainly is not punishment for the crimes they committed.
Just because someone is mentally ill does NOT mean that they do not know right from wrong. Yes, granted, there are many who cannot grasp this concept because they are so ill, but what about those who DO understand the distinction? My sister and father both fully understood that what they were doing was wrong, yet they never had to be responsible for their actions.
I fully understand what you are saying; don't get me wrong. But I see nothing in what you wrote that indicates how you feel this type of behavior should be dealt with so that we, as a society, can feel and see some sort of retribution, not to mention safety from people such as those who commit murder.
What you stated is that anyone who commits a crime must be mentally ill, and as such should be given some sort of leniency, and most especially forgiveness. You also state that we, as a society, simply are warehousing mentally ill people, so I can only assume that you are inferring that all of the prisons are full of mentally ill people who deserve our forgiveness, but not our punishment.
Where do we draw the line as to what is acceptable behavior, and when the behavior is deemed unacceptable, what are the repercussions?
(I want to state here that I did not share the stories of my family history for any type of sympathy. I simply shared them so it would be apparent that I have experience from that side of the issues. No matter what my family did, if they committed a crime they should have been punished, especially given the fact that they were well aware of the potential consequences of their actions. It is beyond me how they ever escaped being incarcerated.)
) Not only is it a crime against society it was her daughter. The little girl whom she gave birth to. KC has no morals. Maybe we would be more compassionate towards her if she was honest. I can see forgiving but not forgetting if she would have done this by calling LE right when whatever happened. I just can't find it in my heart to pity her whether morally or not.
