I don't know that this thread is in the right area of the forum. I didn't see any evidence the victim in this case was sexually assaulted, just that she was strangled. This area of WS is for pedofiles and not every child killer is a pedofile.
Just thinking outloud. If the victims mother chose to forgive her child's killer, who are we to disapprove? Especially as a victim friendly forum. If the childs mother could forgive, personally, I think as a victim friendly forum we should support the mother's decision.
In general life sentences not being life sentences is a whole 'nother issue, and I do not want to single it out to this case.
Murder is a crime against society, not just against an individual or a relative of a victim. The subjects of parole and forgiveness are two entirely separate issues.
When someone receives a life sentence (instead of a death sentence), parole is one way that the sentence can be lifted.
There are many issues and factors for a parole board to consider, including the comments and opinions of members of society and the opinions of a victim's family. However, although any person can forgive a convicted child murderer, it should not be the deciding factor regarding parole. That decision rests with the state parole board and not with a relative of the victim.
In the case of the murder of this 15 month-old child, how can you assume that no sexual assult occurred? Does it matter? This woman strangled a baby to death. Often, in cases of murder, the perpetrator is convicted of murder and not of molestation.
Following this logic (that only pedophiles be discussed here), Fred Coffey should NOT have been included in this forum topic area - because he was convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of a 10 year-old girl and NOT for sexually molesting her.
Even though Coffey is was convicted of several other incidents involving child molestation and rape, those convictions did NOT result in the life sentence for which he was up for parole.
That said, Coffey is indeed a pedophile. By his own admission he had molested over 100 children by the time of his 1986 trial, and he has multiple convictions for molesting children. He was twice sentenced to Death for murdering Amanda Ray, and because of some fancy appeal work by his lawyer, won a third trial which kept all mention of those molestations out of sentence consideration by the jury. He has been enjoying life at state expense ever since.
The question is: should any recommendations to Coffey's next Parole Board (July 2015) mention that he is a pedophile?
I do not know the specifics of whether or not Betty Smithey was ever a pedophile. I sincerely hope that she got the mental health treatment that she needed while in prison, and that she is never again allowed near any children.
When anyone who has been convicted of any crime against a child comes up for parole, the public should be alerted and allowed to weigh in.
