anneoakley63 said:I've come to this topic and left it three different times because this case really gets to me. I am a SURVIVOR of repeated sexual abuse, so my opinion may be somewhat biased. Anyway...here goes...
No, she doesn't deserve a free pass...but she doesn't deserve prison either. Yes, she murdered her siblings...but prison is only going to offer MORE abuse. This girl needs to be in a mental hospital. And for those who have never suffered through sexual abuse, you have no right to say she doesn't have a mental illness. You have no idea how this type of abuse can affect you mentally and physically. I've seen several people ask about teachers, etc. I don't know how things work in the town she was living in....but where I lived...no one would listen. I went to several adults and received no help. I can't say if I would have killed the one man who abused me the most, because he didn't live long enough to give me the opportunity to make that decision. But honestly...the thought has crossed my mind on several occasions.
This child (and yes, mentally she will still be a child) needs help. She needs love and support from the community. This whole family seems to have been screwed up and the mother should be sitting in prison as well. She is partially responsible for what has happened. The step-father should rot in jail.
(stepping down off soap box)
Most people don't understand that sexual abuse victims (especially ones who had suffered repeated, horrific abuse) tend to become emotionally arrested at the age the abuse began. In this girl's case it was 4. Her thought processes re the fire settinh seem to be similar to those of a 4 year old, if you look at it.mysteriew said:I am afraid that I come off on the side of the child. And a child she was. A child who was being abused by her stepfather, with a mother who would not listen or respond to her, who was being isolated from others. She was also being manipulated by an adult. Why would she tell anyone? The one person who was responsible for caring for and protecting her- didn't. Why would she think anyone else would? So instead she was full of rage, that was being fanned every time she got abused again. No end to it that she could see. He was the all powerful one. She saw her family being physically abused by him. She was being sexually abused by him. And no one seemed to intervene. So one day she says enough. She felt powerless against the stepfather, so that ruled out attacking him directly. So she started a fire- hoping he would die in the fire. She knew that fire dept and police dept. would show up. People who might protect her. There was no intention of killing her siblings- she probably felt that she would be saving them too. She was thinking, feeling and reacting at the age she was when the abuse began. When the rage began. She was responding at that age level. Did she think of the other possible consequence's? No probably not. Kids that age don't think of those kinds of things.
What happened was tragic. But I don't think that she needs prison. She needs treatment to learn to deal with that rage. She needs to learn what a "normal" life is like. She needs the opportunity to learn that she is more than just a body for someone to use.
BillyGoatGruff said:Most people don't understand that sexual abuse victims (especially ones who had suffered repeated, horrific abuse) tend to become emotionally arrested at the age the abuse began. In this girl's case it was 4. Her thought processes re the fire settinh seem to be similar to those of a 4 year old, if you look at it.
I lived with someone who had been horribly sexually abused from the age of 3 until the age of 7. He had rage issues, and when he became angry would respond much like a 3 year old would--kicking,screaming, slamming doors, punching/striking/throwing inanimate objects. Basically a tantrum on steroids. What is irritating and tiresome in a 3 year old is frightening/dangerous in an adult, but that is exactly the level on which they operate--often unaware of WHY they respond the way they do.
Sounds like a great bunch of "children":loser: :loser: :behindbar I'am glad they are behind bars!PrayersForMaura said:Sentenced as juveniles
The Iowa prison system houses 41 inmates sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles. Some inmates, such as Tracey Dyess, were involved in homicides but received lesser sentences. Here are some of the juveniles who have been convicted since 1994 of committing murder and have been sentenced to life in prison, according to Department of Corrections:
RUTHANN VEAL: Sentenced in May 1994 for the death of Catherine Haynes, 66, of Waterloo. Veal stabbed Haynes 23 times in June 1993 and then took her car, credit cards and checkbook and drove with friends to Iowa City, where the credit cards were used to finance a shopping spree, police said. Veal, 14 at the time and a runaway from a youth detention center, was arrested in Cedar Rapids two days after the crime. She was 17 at the time of her sentencing.
MICHAEL COFFMAN: Sentenced in October 1995 for the death of Jeremy Allen, 15. Coffman, 17 when sentenced, shot Allen twice in the head on July 25, 1994. The incident occurred in front of students after a driver education class at Ottumwa High School. They had expected a fistfight, a likely follow-up to the boys' angry exchange over a 15-year-old girl, students said.
KRISTINA FETTERS: Sentenced to life in prison in December 1995, Fetters, of Des Moines, was convicted of hitting Arlene Louise Klehm, 73, her great-aunt, in the head with a skillet and then stabbing her to death with kitchen knives in October 1994. At the time of the sentencing, Fetters was 15.
BURT SMITH and JAYSON SPEAKS: The two 17-year-olds were sentenced in 1996 for the death of Rebecca Hauser in rural Union on Oct. 4, 1994. Both from Missouri, the teens were running away to Canada and wanted another vehicle when they pulled Hauser over, using the postal lights equipped on their vehicle. Hauser was shot once in the face ....
More: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051123/NEWS01/511230368/1001/NEWS08
I was and still am scared to death, Street wrote, and had no one to turn to.