Saturday, May 10, 2008

A Swift Verdict For an Unimaginable Crime

Yes, we can get things done quickly here in Texas.

From the Star Telegram Crime Time Blog:

By Lance Murray


Some crimes don't need much time to decide guilt and punishment.

In Tyler on Thursday, a jury needed just four minutes to convict a woman who was an organizer of a swinger's club where, prosecutors said, young children were forced to perform sexual acts for a live audience. It took six minutes for jurors to decide on a life sentence.
When you read the details of what she did, a life sentence is seems kind of lenient.

From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:

By Casey Knuapp

Several people gave victim impact statements, including the four victims in the case and their foster parents. Six of the 12 jurors returned to the courtroom after being released to hear their statements.

The victims — three siblings, a 10-year-old girl, a 9-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl — and their 9-year-old aunt all testified about how Ms. Mayo and other defendants in the case taught them beginning at age 5 how to dance and perform sex acts in “kindergarten,” then forced them to dance and have sex with each other in front of an audience. The defendants collected money for the performances but paid the children with food. The children were also given “silly pills” or drugs before they danced in the club.
I can not imagine the lives these children have led. Modern punishments are not up to taking this goblin to task.

2 comments:

TexasFred said...

Life is NOT enough...

I know that the death penalty is a quick out for people like this but a slow hanging on the Court House lawn would be just perfect...

Toni said...

Slow hanging sounds reasonable under the circumstances. God bless Texas though. Had this happened here (Pennsylvania) they probably would have just put the woman through psychiatric treatment and back out on the street in no time.