The Abuse Excuse (The Case of Cody Posey)
Nancy Grace - the wild-eyed Court TV and CNN commentator alluded to in my blog heading - and I do not usually agree on many things. A crime victim herself, Grace has (more than) a passion for prosecution and takes on each case as though she has a personal stake in any defendant's conviction. At time's it's a little unsettling to listen to her shrill voice as she pauses after every word and watch her contorting face as she questions how ANYONE could possibly for a moment doubt any given defendant's guilt. I was not surprised to learn of her book (released this summer) entitled: Objection: How High Priced Defence-Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants and a 24/7 Media Have Highjacked our Criminal Justice System.
Reviewers of Grace's book are also unsurprised. That Grace is pro-prosecution is not a secret to anyone familiar with her program. While her book contends that defence attorneys merely work to obscure the truth from the jury - something I disagree with - she drives home more than a point about the way the public views criminal cases. While I am far from a liberal, I have always leaned towards defense. I can't get past my belief that everyone has a right to a fair trial whether you are Scott Peterson or Sadam Hussein. (I assume Grace would disagree.) Yet, more and more I've found myself finding "excuses" for those who commit violent crimes.
Take the case of Cody Posey (New Mexico v. Posey). This 16 year old gunned down his father, step-mother and sister after - what he claims were - years of abuse when he was 14. The defence in the case has repeatedly argued that episodes of abuse perpetrated by Posey's father justified this triple homicide. According to Posey's testimony, "I just lost my mind, I guess." For many people who lean pro-defence as I generally do, it's easy to push the possibility that this boy just snapped and did something about his situation. However, a closer look at the evidence shows a boy who did not "snap" or "lose his mind" but someone who thought out his actions before hand and carried his plan through to completion when the time arose.
According to Posey's confession, he waited inside the house for his father to enter at which time he shot him in the head. Before this, he shot his step-mother - who was clearly a threat as she sat reading a book on the couch - in the head. He then shot his thirteen year old step sister twice in the face because he "knew she would tell." Now, I'm not denying the possibility that this child was disturbed and possibly abused enough to feel trapped by his life. Perhaps his father, on some level, deserved this. However, how do you justify the killing of his step-mother and sister who posed no threat to the boy? When asked why he killed his step-mom, what did Posey say? "She was mean and stuff." And what about his sister? If this was just a moment of weakness in which this boy couldn't take the abuse of his father anymore, what excuse can be found for killing an innocent little girl who merely had the misfortune of being in the vicinity of the crime? And what about the fact that he hid the bodies in a backhoe and covered them with manure to hide his misdeeds? Does someone who is "out of his mind" have the capacity to think to hide his crime? If this was a crime of passion, how can that be explained?
One Court TV analyst after another has argued that this boy does not deserve to be punished, that his actions were entirely justified. It is easy to defend a child and easier still to defend one who has made legitimate claims of abuse, but does this mean we should just forget that the child is a triple murderer? The evidence and testimony of psychologists who have evaluated him do not find him to have been impaired, insane or otherwise mentally ill. So why are we excusing what this child has done? Have we really gotten to a point in this country where we can sympathetically justify the cold and calculating murder of one's family for any reason? How many children are out there who suffer abuse that do not kill? Should we suggest to them that this is acceptable behavior?
As Nancy Grace would say... HELLO PEOPLE!
Reviewers of Grace's book are also unsurprised. That Grace is pro-prosecution is not a secret to anyone familiar with her program. While her book contends that defence attorneys merely work to obscure the truth from the jury - something I disagree with - she drives home more than a point about the way the public views criminal cases. While I am far from a liberal, I have always leaned towards defense. I can't get past my belief that everyone has a right to a fair trial whether you are Scott Peterson or Sadam Hussein. (I assume Grace would disagree.) Yet, more and more I've found myself finding "excuses" for those who commit violent crimes.
Take the case of Cody Posey (New Mexico v. Posey). This 16 year old gunned down his father, step-mother and sister after - what he claims were - years of abuse when he was 14. The defence in the case has repeatedly argued that episodes of abuse perpetrated by Posey's father justified this triple homicide. According to Posey's testimony, "I just lost my mind, I guess." For many people who lean pro-defence as I generally do, it's easy to push the possibility that this boy just snapped and did something about his situation. However, a closer look at the evidence shows a boy who did not "snap" or "lose his mind" but someone who thought out his actions before hand and carried his plan through to completion when the time arose.
According to Posey's confession, he waited inside the house for his father to enter at which time he shot him in the head. Before this, he shot his step-mother - who was clearly a threat as she sat reading a book on the couch - in the head. He then shot his thirteen year old step sister twice in the face because he "knew she would tell." Now, I'm not denying the possibility that this child was disturbed and possibly abused enough to feel trapped by his life. Perhaps his father, on some level, deserved this. However, how do you justify the killing of his step-mother and sister who posed no threat to the boy? When asked why he killed his step-mom, what did Posey say? "She was mean and stuff." And what about his sister? If this was just a moment of weakness in which this boy couldn't take the abuse of his father anymore, what excuse can be found for killing an innocent little girl who merely had the misfortune of being in the vicinity of the crime? And what about the fact that he hid the bodies in a backhoe and covered them with manure to hide his misdeeds? Does someone who is "out of his mind" have the capacity to think to hide his crime? If this was a crime of passion, how can that be explained?
One Court TV analyst after another has argued that this boy does not deserve to be punished, that his actions were entirely justified. It is easy to defend a child and easier still to defend one who has made legitimate claims of abuse, but does this mean we should just forget that the child is a triple murderer? The evidence and testimony of psychologists who have evaluated him do not find him to have been impaired, insane or otherwise mentally ill. So why are we excusing what this child has done? Have we really gotten to a point in this country where we can sympathetically justify the cold and calculating murder of one's family for any reason? How many children are out there who suffer abuse that do not kill? Should we suggest to them that this is acceptable behavior?
As Nancy Grace would say... HELLO PEOPLE!
posted by Nunzia at 1:34 PM
6 Comments:
I recently had the chance to meet one of Chicago's best criminal defense attorneys and he opened my eyes to a new perspective on the law. Being a third year law student, I was quite shocked to realize that I really don't know everything after all.
Anyway, someone in our group asked him how he can defend people that he knows are guilty. His response:
"This person, not defendant, this PERSON may very well have committed a crime. Whatever he has done to bring him to my office, he now has the unlimited resources of a government seeking to take his freedom from him bearing down on his shoulders. That is a terrifying situation even if it is one of your own making. I believe that a person in that situation needs the best possible advocate at their side to counterbalance the power of the government to take your freedom. They need someone to ensure that if the government does that, it is because there was no doubt that they had the right to do so."
Great blog.
Another thought, pardon me while I hijack your blog.
How many teenagers in the projects commit triple murders? When they do, does it even make the news? If it does, don't we all cheer when the prosecutor announces that he will charge the teen as an adult?
One difference is that this kid killed his parents. But is race a factor? Or maybe poverty?
In other words, why do we get so bent out of shape when a suburban white kid kills three people, or shoots up a school, but just sort pass by exactly the same situation when it happens in gang territory on the south side of Chicago?
I don't really know the answer, but it's an interesting question.
There is a lot of truth in what you said -- on both counts. I believe that everyone is entitled to the best possible defence but I also think that the media does try to influence how we feel about certain defendants. You are probably right that a teen in the projects would get little mercy for committing the same crime. I doubt that droves of defence attorneys would be on Court TV saying that the boy needs counseling, not jail time. Thanks for commenting on my blog. Hope you'll be back!
I just saw your comment on my blog (re: Cody Posey), so per your request, here I am : )
(Nice to meet you, by the way.)
I think the jury was SO WRONG in their verdict(s), but I strongly believe that the Judge will be merciful & mindful of what that poor boy endured at the hands of his "family".
As I wrote in an e-mail to Judge Counts (via Nancy Grace's section on the CTv website) -
"Yes, Cody's crime was brutal, but so were the crimes committed against him."
Lisa from Prospect Hill
Nancy Marie- I will have to disagree with what you said, his step-mother wasn't innocent, she abused him as his father did.Her abuse may not have been out right, but if you are a stander-by watching abuse and you don't step in to help you are just as guilty as the abuser. His step-sister was a spy for Cody's father, so if her mom was innocent how could the step-daughter feel it was right to help take part in abusing Cody if her mother wasn't helping also?
Cody was not insane, I'll give you that. He had not thoroughly thought it out though, if he had he would have hid everything better than in a tractor bucket covered in manure. If he would have thoroughly thought it out he would have picked a place where it would not get disturbed, ever, not a tractor bucket that would get dumped in a few days. Common sense say this! Then he would have cleaned up his mess, did he, no Donaldson walked in a saw the blood. He was perfectly sane but acting in the heat of the moment.
So by what you are saying you mean to tell us if you had been abused by your father and step-mother, not allowed to participte in activies at school, sports, FFA, then burned with welding rod, which by the way happens to be around 2000 degrees, after refusing to have sex with your step mom for you father's enjoyment of watching, you wouldn't get so ticked you would kill the people who tormented you for so long? If not then you are very secure in your boiling point or you are just lying to yourself and everyone else around you. Some people kill themselves in these instances others kill the source of their pain. I like many others would kill my source of pain.
There is always another way out besides murder. Cody could have run away, told the authorities, sought help, etc. Cody took justice into his own hands instead and killed 3 people - one of which was a little girl, no matter what you want to say about her. All three were unarmed and defenseless. There is no excuse.
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