There’s been an ongoing case that’s been hitting the papers a lot up here, of a Canadian being tried for murdering her husband in Baltimore. Has it been making the news in Maryland?
The accused, a Canadian of East Indian descent, married her husband, an American of East Indian descent, in an arranged marriage. Things didn’t go well, and last year he ended up dead in Baltimore, where he was studying. She was tried for murder and acquitted, but the jury hung on manslaughter. She’s now facing trial this week on the manslaughter charge in Baltimore.
The case got a lot of attention this week because she initially refused to return to Baltimore from Canada, and the judge ordered the forfeiture of her bail and security, to the tune of $400,000. She’s now turned up in Baltimore.
I’m just curious to know if there’s been any comment on the case, and if so, what take the media is giving to the case.
I was just curious whether it’s getting much media attention in Baltimore, and whether it seems like an unusual case to folks down south.
It’s been closely followed here, in part because of the arranged marriage aspect, plus the hung jury on the first trial, and then her initial refusal to return to the U.S.
Plus, there’s been a fair bit of interest in comparing the criminal/court situation in Baltimore with cities up here. For example, a Canadian journalist covering the first trial (in mid-January) pointed out that there had already been more murders in Baltimore than there had been in Edmonton, Alberta, in all of 1999 - yet the cities are roughly the same size. Does Baltimore have a particularly high crime rate, or is that typical for an American city of that size?
I guess you could just say I’m a nosy neighbour, looking over the fence, and comparing notes.
I think she was rather foolish for coming back to the U.S., assuming she did so voluntarily. Canada might not have turned her over, fearing she would face the death penalty (not that it’s any of Canada’s damn business how we punish our criminals).
As for comparing Edmonton and Baltimore…does Edmonton have more that a handful of minorities of ANY kind? Does it have a poor neighborhood, i.e. ghetto? Does it have a broad variety of people in different social and economic classes? Or is everyone there of more or less the same ethnic descent, more or less the same economic status, more or less the same social class?
This is not directed at anyone in particular, but when people from almost completely homogenous countries criticize the U.S. I get real pissed. Hey, if you’re country is so much better, why did so many of your citizens emigrate to HERE?! Obviously, this doesn’t apply to Canada. My point is that cultural, economic, and other differences cause friction, and that leads to greater unrest in the populace and more crime. If you go out of the big American cities to the white, Protestant Midwestern countryside, you find hardly any crime. Before someone flames me, I’m emphatically not saying that non-whites are more prone to crime. I’m saying that when people are “ghettoized”-i.e. forced by a stronger majority into their own cloistered neighborhoods, it leads to frustration. That’s all. In countries which have no significant minorities in their cities (yes, I am aware that Canada has native tribes) there are no economic, social, or cultural differences for people to focus on. Remember, Americans and Canadians (outside of Quebec) are BOTH predominantly descendants of British settlers. Obviously, things are a little different down here for a reason, and it can only be the divergent paths our countries have taken since their founding.
Nobody deserves “credit” for this; it’s just how it worked out.
It’s up to the hosting country whether someone should be forcibly removed. The US has extradition hearings to decide whether other countries get to punish their criminals.
I’ll pretend this is an actual question, not trying to be smart ass rhetorical. Edmonton has a substantial Native community that is extremely poor. In Edmonton’s home province of Alberta, the prison population is about 75% Native.
Baltimore County(98):
721874 total. Vis Mins: 115744 black, 22820 asian+pacific islander, 12734 hispanic
source: http://www.op.state.md.us/MSDC/CNTY_EST/Pop98/baco98.htm
Edmonton Metro(96):
854225 total. Vis Mins: 32825 aboriginal, 85475 asian+filipino,18680 africa/latin america
source: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/popula.htm#ori
Diversified enough for you? I hate to rant but I just hate knee jerk reactions.
Anyway there wouldn’t have been grounds for Canada to keep her on death penalty worries; she is only up for manslaughter.
Her excuse for being late for her date was that her dad or uncle or something controls her assets and wouldn’t let her go(why didn’t she just kill him?)
Well, I won’t deny it was a knee-jerk reaction. Be that as it may, after looking at your numbers, I don’t know what that reporter who made the comparison between Edmonton and Baltimore was talking about. The Edmonton area has 133,000+ more people than Baltimore, an 18% difference. I wouldn’t call that “of comparable size.” I know, I know: he was saying Edmonton has fewer murders than Baltimore. I’m just nitpicking in the midst of my rant, 'kay?
Furthermore, Baltimores biggest minority is 16% of it’s total pop., while Edmonton’s is only 10%. Total minorities in Edmonton actually make up a significantly smaller percentage of it’s population, which would tend to support my point. My basic question was unanswered though: Were these minorities ghettoized?? I also find it very telling that the Natives are very poor, and also very commonly in prison. Much the same could be said of the U.S.'s poor: they make up the bulk of the prison population. What do guns have to do with this? Nothing, as far as I can tell.
Well, you really can’t compare Baltimore County to Edmonton, since this happened in Baltimore City…they are two different places (the city and the county, that is). Baltimore County has many less murders than Baltimore City in each year’s tally. The city has a huge crime and drug problem. Anyone ever watch “Homicide”? Pretty true-to-life. How about HBO’s “The Corner”?
Just wanted to clarify the difference between the city and the county.
As for the OP, yes, this has been back on the front page the past few days. Her father bought a $100,000 condo in the county for her to stay in while the trial is taking place, and also as collateral for her bail. It was also (I gather) a deciding factor in the judge letting her out on bail, rather than staying in jail, although she is under house arrest (in the condo).
Last I heard, she was claiming he was trying to kill her because she wanted out of the incredibly stifling and controling family of his.
Considering that she HAD to live with his parents, and that she wasnt ALLOWED to go visit him (he worked in another state)and the his MOM went to stay with him instead, I dont think its far fetched at all that this son-of-nuts would try to kill her rather than face the cultural shame of having a wife leave.
Consider this - this woman is an eduacted professional, a dentist IIRC, and she could have bolted for canada and made a life for herself there, why on earth would she kill him?
She had escaped her fatherinlaw’s home, headed straight to her husband with a list of things that had to change or she was leaving. They argued all evening, with his mother egging things on, and then the wife went to bed. She maintains that she awoke to her husband straddling her with a knife - they struggled, and his throat was cut.
The prosecution says the husband was bigger, how could she overpower him? Well, I was bigger than my ex, and I often straddled him, and he had no problem tossing me off if he wants on top.
My point?
Why would she do to try and save her marriage if her intent was to kill him? Why did his mother admit to disposing of the weapon? Why kill him on purpose with his mother in the next room?