Crap. By “immediately preceeding post” of course I mean Hentor’s, not the one where Buckner jumped ahead of me. God will get him for that.
Diane Downs has never admitted shooting her children. I read both Ann Rule’s book and Diane’s own. I did notice how Rule never wrote a word about Diane’s defense.
There are unanswered questions: What did she do with the gun? How do you shoot three children in a small car and not get any blood on yourself? Was Diane’s gunshot wound self-afflicted?
I’m not saying she didn’t do it. I just think there’s serious doubt about it.
Manhattan: I have no problem with you cracking up. It was intended to be amusing 
Well, I was referring to Jesus’ commandment to comfort prisoners.
UnuMondo
Hentor, you slay me! 
You know, the composer of the song you’re parodying absolutely hates Pina Colada’s and isn’t very happy that the song’s the one thing he’s best known for, so I’m willing to bet that he’d be pleased as punch at your parodying his work.
(to the tune of “God Will” by Lyle Lovett)
Who keeps on trusting you
when you’ve been killin’,
drownin’ your kids in the lake?
Who says he’ll forgive you
and that he still wants you
'though your racist alibi was fake?
God does, but I don’t.
God will, but I won’t.
And that’s the difference between God and me.
[Hijack]
I went to the SF Gate web site and next to the Smith story was an ad for the Make A Wish Foundation.
Strange.
[/Hijack]
Slee
How does not being Christian automatically entail being of a different moral persuasion? Are there things contained only within the Christian morality spectrum?
I just love the the personal data tracked for each “penpal”. In addition to age, sex, etc. they ask for the following:
Earliest Release Date:
Latest Release Date:
Seeking Legal Help:
On Death Row:
Serving Life Sentence:
Seeking Donations:
Incarcerated Since:
Incarcerated For:
If she had surrendered her children to someone else’s care, I would have more sympathy for her, but she did not and they are dead. No more sunshine, no ice cream cones, no nothing, dead.
If I committed a crime similar to Susan Smith’s, I would not expect a lot of sympathy from others. I could expect my family to be there during my trial and maybe the occasional visit while incarcerated , but not much else.
Sorry, I tried to be clearer on that by typing “people of other moral persuasions” instead of “non-Christians” because I understand so-called Christian values are often found with non-Christians.
OTOH, it’s a damn shame some Dopers feel “I’m an atheist, so I don’t have to forgive this woman and can be as cruel as I want, yay!” Too bad the atheists with more compassionate beliefs re: forgiveness aren’t more visible.
UnuMondo
We were not wronged by Susan Smith, at least not in any truly tangible fashion. We, even if we are Christians, are not charged with forgiving her for unless she has “trespassed against us” with her crime.
Even if we do “forgive” her, that doesn’t mean that we must not judge her current actions. She is being treated with all the compassion she deserves; she hasn’t been mistreated, she is cared for in prison at a higher standard than many citizens who have committed no crime. (She’s certainly protected, out of the elements, given health care, fed regularly, etc.) She also apparently has access to a computer. (I didn’t think that was permitted. Odd.)
To be wide-eyed with shock at the rosy picture she’s attempted to paint of herself in light of the facts: forgiveness and compassion aside, she brutally murdered her own children and then trotted out the hoary old “evil black man” to mask her crime while playing on the national sympathies with a tears-and-snot act for the cameras. That’s not something that we can or should forget. More importantly, it’s something that Susan Smith shouldn’t be allowed to forget, either. As far as I’m concerned, she shouldn’t have the time to think about Mickey Mouse or rainbows because her beautiful little boys don’t either.
Argh, that last paragraph got lost in a sea of bad editing.
Should be:
“To be wide-eyed with shock at the rosy picture she’s attempted to paint of herself in light of the facts is far from unacceptable. Forgiveness and compassion aside,”
[ new life motto ] Preview is my friend. Preview is my friend. [ /motto ]
And note how few really fill in the box for “Incarcerated For.”
I am a Christian. However, I am not a saint, and I would need the compassion of a saint to be able to forgive her.
I feel compassion for Susan Smith. Her crime was terrible and yes, evil, but I read about the sadness in her life before she did that terrible thing and I feel pity for her, as well as revulsion at her crime.
I don’t know if it makes me a bad person that I feel pity for her, I think that she has to live with what she did every day, perhaps I am naive, but I thought it was a suicide attempt and she tried to take the kids with her which is so wrong of course but it is apparently very common and in their irrationality they think it is the best thing to take the kids with them.
Perhaps I am too naive and she is a cold blooded killer, but nontheless I feel pity for her and her children and thier dad and all the family. for everyone. I hope that doesn’t make me like a bad person or misguided.
Smith tried to pass it off by saying she really intended to kill herself. She has said a lot of self-serving and manipulative statements. But consider her claim of suicide-attempt-gone-wrong:
She had strap the two boys into their seats:
Drive to the waterfront:
Get out of her car,
Then set the car in motion from outside the vehicle
Stand and watch as the vehicle with her children inside rolled slowly into the water.
And watch at least long enough to ensure that the children would die.
Then come forward with a race-baiting story that a black man attacked her.
If she’s claiming she was confused and distraught, she sure managed to carry out each step of those tasks with lethal effectiveness. That’s someone committing premeditated murder.
You’re not a bad person for having sympathy for her. Sympathy is not the trait of a bad person. But there are so many more people in the world who are better deserving it.
I’d think that someone might find it great fun to write her a long sensitive letter, wipe his or her butt with it, place it in the envelope, and then mail it to her.
She’d probably open it up and say “You know, that’s just SO Childish…” just before she got it.
Their search engine sucks, they can only be found by name or state in which they are incarcerated. What if I wan’t to correspond solely with strong armed robbers, or statutory rapists? Or lifers?
Anybody remember the name of that kind of cute teacher chick who was boinking the boy student, even after she was imprisoned for it once? Maybe she’s lonely again?
Probably not what Jim is thinking of but how about the teacher suspected of boinking student Edward Furlong?