Thursday, November 16, 2006

Seton Hall "Pranksters" accept Plea Deal. Another Travesty!!

It been nearly 7 years.......January 19, 2000.

The families of the dead students, Aaron Karol, John Giunta, and Frank Caltabilota, have waited nearly seven years. 53 other student victims, injured during the Boland Hall fire have endured excruciating burn therapy, surgery, and lifetime disfigurement. The dead, the injured, and the families living this tragedy have all waited nearly 7 years for their day in court... for their chance to confront the two killers who have changed their lives forever.

Yesterday, they waited in an Essex County Courtroom to hear each defendant utter the same statement.
"I didn't intend to harm anyone. It was a prank that got out of hand." And with those two statements filed with the court, the two prankster murderers were granted a plea deal that will cost each of them a maximum of 5 years in prison, with parole eligibility after 16 months. At no time did either of these two miscreants admit they did anything wrong, or even say they were sorry! Justice???

Oh yeah, there's this too....before you start thinking that during the last 7 years the two defendants were being punished or held in jail for their "prank," think again. Both were free on bail, and living with their parents. One of them even worked as a Manager in a local restaurant! While the parents of the dead had nothing but memories and tears to comfort them, and the injured had only painful debridement treatments to keep them company....the two killers were sleeping in their parent's homes, living their lives, with barely a change!

I'm not even going to ask the rhetorical question, I'm just going to make a statement. This is what we (and the judicial system in the United States) are teaching our children.
  • Never take responsibility for your actions. Simply say that anything you do was a prank that went wrong and you're covered! Don't worry you'll find a lawyer that will make it happen.
  • Set a fire that kills three and maims 53 at a major University - a prank that went wrong.
  • Drive drunk and kill a few pedestrians - the bar should have never served you.
  • Force yourself on your date after a night of drinking - she was asking for it.
There are a million other examples, but those quickly leap to mind.

You hear ACLU lawyers talking about how many people in the United States are incarcerated. They mourn over those in jail unjustly. They cry out for change to a judicial system that allows these travesties of justice to continue. Perhaps if we followed the axiom "Let the punishment fit the crime," (which you never hear any longer), it would be different today. Perhaps if we as parents taught our children that no matter how much I love you and want to protect you - that if you do something wrong you have to pay for your actions, it would be different today.

Perhaps if the murderers LePore and Ryan had been taught that there were grown-up consequences to pranks gone wrong, they might have stopped giggling a minute before they lit that banner on fire in Boland Hall, and the families of 56 other human beings wouldn't be living this nightmare 7 years later.

I hope that during their incarceration, both of these murderers are forced to endure "debridement" at least once. That at some point they feel & smell their own flesh burning on their bodies. I hope the doctor's and nurse's force them to watch as their necrotic flesh is scrubbed from their wounds daily in order to prevent infection. And I hope the morphine drips are "misplaced" for just a few hours each time.

Not to harm them....just a prank....



"Dum Spiro Spero"



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