Is anyone familiar with the Bernardo/Homolka case? I don't believe I, or the rest of Canada, will ever forget the nation wide search for the killers of teenagers, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. I was a teenager when this occurred and when Bernardo and Homolka were caught. The news footage of their fairytale wedding occurring simultaneously as police discovered the dismembered remains of Leslie Mahaffy encased in cement will never leave my memory. The entire country was in fear, and in a lot of ways, touched by this as the hunt for the killers was still underway. I had a boyfriend who, because of the kind of car he drove, was ordered, along with thousands of others who drove the same kind of car, to bring his car to an arranged public meeting place to be searched by police. As a teenager, I was terrified.
Karla Homolka is scheduled to be released from prison next month. What are your thoughts? Is she just as guilty as Paul Bernardo in all of the rapes and murders in this case? Was 12 years enough of a sentence for Homolka and did a plea bargain provide investigators with more evidence against Bernardo than they would have come up with on their own? Do you believe the "battered wife" syndrome plea, especially when it has been reported and captured on video that Homolka enjoyed partaking in the sick "activities" as much as her husband did?
Is a mind like that ever really capable of therapeutic recovery?
Has an injustice been served in this case, rather than justice?
I'm not sure if she is more guilty than Bernardo, but she certainly is equally as guilty. She didn't just watch the events, she participated in them. When she had a bit of a guilty conscience before murdering one of the girls, she offered her one of her stuffed animals to hold onto in case her death was too painful.
I can't wrap my brain around why she will not be charged in the death of her sister as well. Since she disappointed Bernardo by not being a virgin when they married, she offered him her sister's virginity. They both drugged and raped her and videotaped the whole thing. Her sister, Tammy Homolka, died in the process. In the time that followed Tammy's death, Bernardo was still turned on by the rape of Karla's virgin sister, Karla would satisfy him by dressing up and acting like her dead virgin sister to make the act of sex more fulfilling for Bernardo.
A 12 year sentence has stunned the entire country for 12 years now. Now that her release is scheduled for next month, many people can't believe that 12 years have passed already. There have been public threats against Homolka's life. Now the Canadian law will go to extreme lengths to protect her safety upon her release. This woman should have been caged for life in the first place.
What did she do to occupy her time for 12 years while living in the lap of luxury? She earned her Master's degree of psychology through distance education, paid for by tax payers, of course, and had the freedom in women's correctional facilities to have numerous affairs with other female inmates, was provided with cosmetics to dye her hair and keep herself feeling pretty, and the freedom to throw surprise parties for the birthdays of her inmate companions. 12 years or not, this despicable woman really hasn't served any time at all. Her stay in prison has been better than most people's vacations.
I wonder what the rabid kind of feminists have to say about this? Surely this is equal treatment.
The justice system is soft on women. Just because the majority of crime is committed by men does not mean that the treatment should be different. This woman, nay, this psychopath animal should have been given life sentence.
What a lunatic, helping her psycho husband kill her own sister.
M.
"Every positive integer is one of Ramanujan's personal friends."—J. E. Littlewood.
Being of the "fairer" sex does not make a person less capable of being insane or less capable of psychotic and sociopathic behaviour, nor does gender exclude a woman's ability to commit sexual offenses. If a woman has all of the above traits, it must be due to a man's vile influence, right?
I didn't even realize it's been 12 years... Been too caught up in the crap occurring within my own life to keep up... To be honest, I'm not sure what right the authorities have on stopping Homolka from living wherever she wants to. She's paid her debt, whether that debt was reduced through a deal is irrelevant. It was acceptable enough to the authorities then, why now is there still a reduction in her freedom? If they weren't ok with the deal to begin with, they shouldn't have went with it.
That may sound like I sympathize with Homolka, but I don't. I'm more concerned about what the implications of this continued reduction in freedoms can mean for others. It kinda makes me wonder what sovereignty really means in this country, and whether that sovereignty is retained by a person after having gone through the justice system.
Granted, I've not chosen to follow up on this and remain informed on the case, but from what I've heard about things like the community that scorned her and made a public statement telling her to think about living somewhere else.
I might be off-base with my assumptions, but from what I understood from a couple news reports I'd heard, the authorities are either being protective, or they're being restrictive.
I think that the legal system has full rights to restrict a person if they are stil conidered to be dangerous. It is a matter of public safety. I wonder what her psychiatrist evaluations say about her. I doubt she is still even close to normal.
M.
"Every positive integer is one of Ramanujan's personal friends."—J. E. Littlewood.
Would you be comfortable if Homolka were to enjoy her freedom in your neighbourhood?
She may have paid her 12 year debt, but she will always be a sex offender and murderer. Having "paid her debt" will never change those facts or the sick wiring that makes up her brain.
I wonder what freedoms the Mahoffy and French families have been granted over the last twelve years. I wonder if they have come to terms and dealt with the torture and murder of their children? Most people can't manage that in 30 years, let alone 12.
I don't know about anyone else, but I can vividly recall certain enjoyments and sensations from 12 years ago. I still remember laughing at hysterically funny things when I was a teenager: Those memories still make me laugh and feel good laughing about it today. 12 years is not a lot of time.
My point is, Karla couldn't have sex with her husband without torture or having a knife held to her throat and simulating rape and murder scenes. That did it for her then, do you think an easy 12 years, not so behind bars, will change and erase those desires and memories of the enjoyment she got from activities like that?
No I don't think 12 years was enough, and I'm a layperson who doesn't fully know the intricacies of the law and justice system, unlike those who arranged this deal in the first place.
My point is, if they were uncomfortable with the deal and felt that it wouldn't be sufficient time served, they should've not agreed to the deal. It encroaches upon Homolka's personal freedoms for them to continue to restrain her, unless, like M. pointed out, her psychiatric evaluations show that she's not cured yet, which should lead to hospitalization, not her being released into a neighbourhood.
I'm just concerned about what this restriction can become in several years' time, when the initial practice becomes accepted and it is the norm. What will the next level of restriction be at that point, when the public cries out for greater restrictions after some other awful crime is committed that shakes the nation another time... Know what I mean?
06-09-2005 08:40 AM
