Maybe there is a God after all

[Hurin_Rules]

The most hated woman in Canada, serial killer Karla Homolka, got released today. Most in Canada were shocked that she only served 12 years for the abduction, rape and murder of several teenage girls, one of whom was her own sister. The lawyers felt they needed her testimony to convict her husband, Paul Bernardo, and offered her what most feel to be a sweetheart deal. I thought that as well.

Then I read this today, and i thought, well, maybe letting her out is not so bad an idea afterall. She has suffered so many death threats that she is 'paralyzed with fear' and will probably have to live out the rest of her life in misery and anguish, always worried that some vigilante will find her and give her some small taste of what she did to those girls.

Perhaps there is a God after all.

Sex killer released from Canada prison
Lawyer says Homolka 'paralyzed with fear'

Monday, July 4, 2005 Posted: 1920 GMT (0320 HKT)
MONTREAL, Quebec (AP) -- Convicted child killer Karla Homolka was released from prison Monday after serving 12 years for the rapes and murders of three teenage girls, including that of her younger sister, according to a lawyer for the families of two victims.

Tim Danson and Correctional Service Canada spokeswoman Michele Pilon-Santilli both confirmed the release, but Homolka was nowhere to be seen by the media lining the road outside the prison.

Earlier, Homolka's lawyers argued in court that vigilante death threats have so terrorized her that the media should be banned from reporting on her whereabouts after her release.

One of her attorneys, Christian Lachance, said Homolka, 35, was panicked over her release from the maximum-security prison outside Montreal.

Lachance told Quebec Superior Court Judge Maurice Lagace that his client was too afraid to testify at Monday's hearing. He planned argue that since her safety cannot be assured by police, the media must be prevented from reporting on her whereabouts to protect her from numerous threats against her life, mostly by Internet bloggers.

"She is terrorized by the idea of testifying," Lachance said.

Earlier, Lachance told the Montreal Gazette his client "paralyzed with fear, completely panicked. When I saw her she was in a state of terror, almost in a trance. She cannot conceive of what her life will be like outside."

Christian Leblanc, a media lawyer, said Homolka is a public figure and the media has the right and an obligation to report on her whereabouts and activities.

"They are trying to prevent the media from doing their work," Leblanc said. "The release of Karla Homolka is certainly in the interest of the public."

Homolka's father has said his daughter, who has become fluent in French while in the Quebec prison, had hoped to settle in Montreal.

Danson, a lawyer representing the families of Homolka's teenage victims, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, said Homolka lost her rights to privacy when she murdered his clients' daughters.

"She has to face the consequences of her own actions; there are criminal consequences, there are civil consequences and there are social consequences," Danson told Canadian Press. "She can't be involved in what can only be described as participating in the sexual torture and murder of my clients' children, and then expect simply to walk out and not be answerable to it in the court of public opinion."

Homolka became the symbol of evil in Canada in 1993, when she was convicted of manslaughter and given 12 years for her role in the rapes, sexual torture and murders of Ontario teenagers French and Mahaffy. The prison term also included the 1990 death of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy, who died Christmas Eve after Homolka held a drug-soaked cloth over her mouth while both she and her husband raped her.

In return for her relatively light sentence, Homolka testified against ex-husband Paul Bernardo, a Toronto bookkeeper serving a life term in prison for two counts of first-degree murder. Homolka told the court and psychiatrists that she was a battered wife who took part in the rapes and murders to protect herself and family from threats by Bernardo.

Months after prosecutors made the deal, however, Bernardo's attorneys handed over homemade videotapes by the couple that indicated Homolka was a willing participant. When news of the tapes became public, Canadians were outraged that she would be released in 12 years.

As her release loomed, Ontario prosecutors went back to court and last month obtained heavy restrictions on her movement and activities once released. Homolka also intends to appeal those restrictions, calling them a violation of her plea deal.



http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/am....ap/index.html

[Papewaio]

A patron saint of vigilantes would reside in hell not heaven.

Surely the tapes comming out is extra evidence, or can't a person be retried when extra evidence is found after they have made a deal on a lesser charge?

Surely her evidence against her ex-husband contains perjury which she could be charged with?

[Beirut]

Awwwwww, da poor baby!

[Hurin_Rules]

A patron saint of vigilantes would reside in hell not heaven.

Surely the tapes comming out is extra evidence, or can't a person be retried when extra evidence is found after they have made a deal on a lesser charge?

Surely her evidence against her ex-husband contains perjury which she could be charged with?

I think I got some of the details wrong, and a friend was explaining them to me. The tapes were actually supressed by Bernardo's lawyer; he actually walked into the house after they had searched it, and found them (after Bernardo told them where they were--in a light fixture in the bathroom, I think). So, Homolka didn't give them the tapes. They needed her testimony. Now, according to my friend, after she gave the testimony, she also remembered a few other things she did that she had forgotten to mention, but they didn't try her on those. Let me see if I can find it.

I guess what I'm saying is that she got off on a much lighter sentence than she should have due to prosecutorial negligence. This to me seems poetic justice, rather than vengeance. I don't think she is contrite at all; she used the system to get out of jail time.

[Papewaio]

Then get the system changed so it doesn't happen again.

[Ja'chyra]

Wouldn't it be a travesty if some vigilante killed her we could blame it on society, give him a couple of months of the world famous rehabilitation (holidays and playstation) and then release him as a national hero

[edyzmedieval]

Anyone here a sniper?!(guess why...)

Poor 15 year old girl.... R.I.P.

AND WTF DID THEY RELEASE HER???????!!!!! SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED ON THE ELECTRIC CHAIR OR GUILLOTINED(we're not in the Napoleonic times, I know very well)!!!!!!!!