Dead children

This didn't start out to be a sad post but there was a common theme to several articles I just read when I was looking for quickies.

• A 14 year old girl in Houston is being charged with capital murder because she stuffed toilet paper in the mouth of her newborn baby and flushed him in the toilet. She gave birth in the bathroom of her junior high school. Her attorney says she didn't realize she was giving birth. Nobody even suspected she was pregnant. I can only imagine how scared and desperate she felt to be in that situation. She could face life in prison.

• Also in Houston, a father is charged with capital murder for the deaths of his 7 year old son and 3 year old daughter. He allegedly tried to burn their bodies before stuffing them in a wooden chest and a suitcase and leaving them in the woods. If you don't hate the guy already, check out his mugshot.

• A 12 year old girl in Vermont is missing after she snuck off to meat someone that she'd been talking to online.

• A Massachusetts state representative who's also a defense attorney is being castigated because of some outrageous statements he made during a debate. He said that if a new mandatory sentencing law was passed, he would "rip apart" child rape victims when they testified:

"I'm going to make sure that the rest of their life is ruined, that when they’re 8 years old, they throw up; when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep; when they’re 19 years old, they’ll have nightmares and they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”

I think he went about it the wrong way but I agree with the point he was making. Mandatory sentencing laws are stupid and the victims often suffer because of them.

• On Wednesday, the Supreme Court overruled a Louisiana law that allowed the death penalty for child rapists. Their reasoning was that the punishment exceeded the crime. I think they made the right decision but for different reasons. If a perpetrator knows he can get the death penalty for rape, he's more likely to kill the victim so she can't testify against him. The consequences would be the same for him whether he killed her or not.