This is the face of early parole for non-violent offenders. Lily Burk was not the criminal, but she became the victim of one – police report that her throat was slashed by a career criminal (read: nonviolent) who kidnapped her in a failed robbery attempt.
Lily Burk was a community volunteer, the upcoming lead in her school play, and by all accounts, a wonderful young woman with a bright and limitless future. While I do not know the Burk family, I grieve for them, and for the loss of their beautiful daughter. Remember her face and her name when politicians representing you start talking about early release of 27,000 ‘nonviolent’ prisoners.
Her alleged killer was considered a low-level, non-violent offender, and yet, he is charged with kidnapping her and slashing her throat. Remember her, and remember what this worthless junkie did to her. Allegedly, of course. We wouldn’t want to affect the bastard getting his right to a fair trial now, would we?
The picture above is credited to the LA Times/other unidentified individuals.
Edited to add: The more I think about this, the angrier it makes me. Parents can do everything right – from the car seat to the booster seat, well-baby checkups and carefully screened playdates – and then, when the kids are old enough to go out in the world on their own, some worthless bastard slits their throat. This isn’t right. It just isn’t right at all.
The normal day-to-day version of public opinion normally runs something like: “All life is sacred.” So, with that in mind, my pro-capital punishment stance is normally viewed as “wrong” by others.
When stories such as the one you have highlighted appear, people tend to agree with me for the length of the case, then go back to condemning people who want to see killers given the lethal injection. I can’t see a way to avoid the injection. It works. They won’t kill anyone else.
My deepest sympathies to the family.
By: bigwords88 on July 29, 2009
at 8:09 pm