Because Everybody Is Entitled To My Opinion

"O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, . . . in wrath remember mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2).
"Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm 85:6)

Monday, May 02, 2005

Mother, 21, Faces Firing Squad

Leaders plead for a woman who denies murder and says a rapist prison guard fathered her son

We have a mother of two girls, tortured into confessing to murdering her husband when she was 16. No forensic evidence was offered in the case. She get the death penalty. She gets pregnant after being raped by a prison guard. Her son is born and now the boy is 2 years old and the Yemenese authorities say it is time to kill her. She hasn't seen her daughters, (one died in a car accident). She won't give up the identity of the guard who raped her for fear of reprisals. And her family won't take her son because of the shame of her being raped.

Every detail about this situation stinks. The crappy "police" work in the murder. The "interrogation" techniques. The lack of investigation into the rape (don't tell me Yemen doesn't have access to DNA testing.) The family's lack of compassion for the boy. I am very pro-death penalty but I am not at all convince that this woman is guilty of murder. I don't see a problem with leniency in light of the (lack of) facts. The U.S. and Britain are trying to exert political pressure on behalf of he woman.

No comments: