Public Stonings Should be Reconsidered

Today was the true test of whether I am tough enough for criminal law. The D.A.'s office is preparing to go to trial next week for a capital murder of a four year old. Since I have two four year olds of my very own, I knew this would be a tough case for me. My first real exposure came today when I was asked to summarize the police reports to prepare for direct examinations. Reading the details of what this child's parents did to him was absolutely sickening.

Then I had to organize the autopsy photos into the order that they would be used for during the direct of the medical examiner.

It was bad. It was hard. But I did ok. I didn't cry until I was on my home this afternoon. I cried because there was nobody in the whole world that cared enough about this child to notice that he was literally being beaten to death. I cried because I never believed that anyone could be so cruel to another human being--especially an innocent child. I cried because what happened to this child was just as bad, and probably worse than what has happened in the high profile child killing cases that have been in the news, and yet this case has received no publicity that I have seen. And that makes me wonder if beating a child to death is so common that this horrendous, sickening case is not newsworthy.

So, I did cry, but not at work. I think that I have seen the worst (even the A.D.A. acknowledged that this is the worst case he has ever seen). I think that I can get past my emotions and help fight to get these SOB's in prison forever (since public stoning is not an option at this time). At least I know I did something good today. I did something for this little boy who no one cared about until he was dead. I can't imagine that helping a big corporation take over a little corporation would ever be as fulfilling--although I'm sure there would be fewer tears.