Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Beyond Repair: Part 2-Redefining the 8th Amendment

Nixzmary Brown…Noah, Mary, Luke, Paul and John Yates…Clyde Bondurant…Kira Walden…An ever-growing list of children who have died by the hands of family members.

Today’s Rant will focus on the newest little casualty, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers. Dubbed “Baby Grace” by police, she was a “fun-loving girl…with a big imagination,” explains Riley Ann’s father, Robert Sawyers. She would play “with a water hose…spraying the whole patio soaking wet.”

Relocated to Galveston with her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor; the body of the then-unidentified toddler was found by a fisherman on October 29, 2007. Her body was stuffed inside a blue storage container that washed up on an uninhabited island in Galveston’s West Bay.

Police arrested Trenor and her husband, Royce Zeigler after Trenor gave a voluntary statement describing her involvement, with Zeigler, in the physical abuse, death and disposal of the remains of her daughter.

According to her statement, both ‘pieces of garbage’ beat the child with leather belts and held her head under water in the bathtub. Zeigler then picked the girl up by her hair and threw her across the room, slamming her head into the tile floor. After her daughter died, Trenor and Zeigler went to a Wal-Mart and bought a Sterilite container which became Riley’s coffin, hidden in a storage shed for “one to two months” before the two carried it to the Galveston Causeway and tossed it in.

A beautiful toddler with wispy blond curls is gone forever. Though nothing the judicial system can do will bring her back, this is my vote to redefine “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Eighth Amendment.

At the time the Eighth Amendment was written, capital punishment was in common use. There also existed punishments that were generally considered cruel and unusual, such as hanging, burning at the stake, and impalement. But now, even lethal injection is under scrutiny. Debating that the convicted might actually feel pain during the procedure and therefore, certain groups and lawmakers arguing that this method is not humane.

What is humane is to do exactly to Trenor and Zeigler as they did to Riley. That would be justice! Unfortunately, that scenerio will never happen with the laws and enforcment of our current judicial system. I can not even hope that these two ‘sickos’ might be ‘neutured’ so that they can never reproduce again. Instead they will clog our courts, use tax payer money for their stay in jail (whatever ridicilously short sentence they get) for two people obviously beyond repair. My only relief is that this happened in Texas…the state with the Death Penalty Express Lane!

Sources:
Police: Mother describes beating of 2-year-old, hiding her body
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/26/body.found.arrest/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_and_unusual_punishment

3 comments:

Royal Tenenbaum said...

To treat a child, and even your own child in this manner, is not only a crime but an extremely immoral act. What a horrible thing to do to a human being.

These parents apparently did not have respect for human life and showed great selfishness...amonst other things.

As I don't agree that the same should be done to them...their sentencing should involve something that would awaken their numbness to helping humanity.

What I should really do is pray for the child...and those that do not respect human life as they should. Killing someone is aweful...but not respecting someone or treating someone with love is something I know I do. So really this tragic act strikes in me a clean slate. Or, another opportunity to respect another.

Anonymous said...

Ron White would be proud. :)

Both of these people should be put to death and I would have no problem doing it myself as a civic duty.

American is becoming too weak on criminals. It is high time we start killing some of these pieces of garbage and jail the people that kill dogs, Sell drugs and rip off the public(like Cheney, Vick and Bush)

This mother and father are the reason why abortion should be legal. If they didn't want the child they should have just went to a clinic and took care of business. But instead they act out a horrible crime and put a beautiful child, (that could have been adopted)to death in a $5.00 plastic Chinese grave. Hell I treated my 1st dog as a child with better class then that when she died.

I do agree with you on our Justice System so I say we send them to Iraq for a trial. Then justice might be served. It took them 6 months to convict Saddam and he got what he had coming. I actually enjoy seeing the video with some popcorn.

Good job as usual.

Anonymous said...

This is such an explosive subject. My personal feeling is that we need to bring back public crucifixion. These people should die with the crows feasting on their eyes. Make no mistake, there is no redemption for someone deranged enough to beat an innocent child to death, and there should be absolutely no quarter given. Meanwhile we need to find a way to connect these unwanted children with loving families before this abuse can occur. There are many couples who would have cherished that little angel, that cannot have children of their own. Instead of drowning/beating or otherwise hurting these innocents, they should be given a fighting chance.
Adoption is an option.
I agree with BIGSIS in terms of prayer: we should pray, for peace, for justice, for the children... this world can be a horrible place. But we should also act to prevent these atrocities from occurring in the first place.