The Punishment Should Fit the Crime

I have a hard time reading the news. Headlines like Mom Admits Killing Girl, Gets Life have a double effect on me. First, as a parent these stories break my heart. I would find it hard to kill a stranger in cold blood, let alone my own flesh and blood. Second, I get angry when I read how prosecuters make plea bargains to secure convictions–deals which usually result in sentences that are light compared to the death sentences imposed on the victims of these heinous crimes.

The district attorneys are not solely to blame. Fault also lies with juries and judges who lack the courage to convict or convey harsh sentences. They are too easily swayed by extenuating circumstances and excuses. Why would prosecuters not strike deals when faced with the possiblity of perpetrators getting off scot-free? You cannot blame them when as a society we have lost our sense of justice. All this to say that I think that these seemingly legal shortcomings point to a more pervasive problem in our culture. Our laws our adequate; our hearts are what need fixing.

The link to the story in the first paragraph is to the Atlanta Journal Constititution, which requires you to sign up for a free account. Rather than put you through that process, I have taken the license to copy the article text. Click on the following link to continue. I urge you to read the entire story, as the details of the crime are toward the end.

Mom admits killing girl, gets life

By BETH WARREN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/02/05

Through sobs, Valerie Carey pleaded guilty in a Fulton County courtroom Tuesday to helping her high school sweetheart murder their little girl in front of their two younger children.

Carey, 29, who has a long and documented history of mental illness, said her husband, Christopher Carey, 31, convinced her that their oldest child, Quimani Carey, 8, was demonic and was helping to orchestrate the murders of the entire family.

The mother believed if they killed Quimani, her family would be transported to a heaven on Jupiter that was inhabited by red dragons. She even spread out her arms and waited to take flight after the child lay dead, one of her attorneys, Susan Wardell, said.

“We thought the rapture would take us to heaven, but we ended up in jail,” Carey told the judge.

Behind bars and away from her husband, Carey started to “come out of a fog” toward reality with the help of mental health treatment and support from her family, her attorneys said.

Carey said she now realizes what has happened and daily mourns the loss of her child, which she blamed on her husband.

“He kept us isolated and trapped in a different world,” she told Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell. “That was my baby. He took her from me and ruined my life.”

The judge sentenced Carey to life in prison with the possibility of parole on murder charges for killing the child in a room at the Savannah Suites Motel. Her attorneys had considered trying an insanity defense, which often doesn’t work with jurors, but “the stakes were too high,” Wardell said.

Christopher Carey, who faces a death penalty trial, was initially expected in court, but his case was postponed. Prosecutors have offered him a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in exchange for a guilty plea, but his attorneys haven’t said whether he will take it or go to trial.

Quimani, who was stabbed and strangled, was found Jan. 19, 2004, on the floor of the couple’s motel room with pages ripped from a Bible strewn on and around her body.

The Careys were arrested as they walked down Piedmont Avenue with their other children, then 2 and 6 years old, hoisted on their shoulders as they headed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s tomb on Auburn Avenue. The temperature was near freezing, and the family was not wearing any clothing.

On Tuesday, Valerie Carey told the judge the past eight years of her life have been a “nightmare” controlled by her husband, who claims to be a biblical scholar and ordained minister. The family kept on the move, often staying at cheap motels or homeless shelters.

The parents would often punish the children by withholding food, Fulton prosecutor Anna Green said. And when the Careys thought they saw a giant ant in a bathtub, they kept their family from bathing for two weeks. Christopher Carey would also strike his wife and the children, with Quimani taking the brunt of the beatings because she asked for food and the chance to go to school, she said.

Prosecutors estimate it took the parents up to 15 minutes to kill the child because she fought back.

Christopher Carey told police that his daughter was sitting quietly in a corner of the motel room when he charged at her with a knife, Green told the judge.

The child was young and undernourished but still fought back against her father, who weighed nearly 200 pounds, the prosecutor said.

As she squirmed, her father stabbed her on the front and back until the blade broke off in the child’s ribs, Green told the judge. The little girl cried out for her mother’s help, but prosecutors say Valerie Carey stayed beside her younger children,, as they sat on the bed and told them to look away.

Christopher Carey then tried unsuccessfully to snap the girl’s neck, Green said.

He then summoned help from his wife, who held the girl so her husband could twist Quimani’s arms and legs until they broke.

Valerie Carey then took over and finished strangling the child.

As part of her plea deal, she has agreed to testify against her husband if the case goes to trial.