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        New Message Board Archives >> 2006 General Board Posts >> The punishment
        
(Message started by: unsolved1 on Mar 15^th, 2006, 11:10pm)

Title: The punishment
Post by unsolved1 on Mar 15^th, 2006, 11:10pm

On a New Year's Eve 25 years ago, a 17-year-old Virginian smashed his car into a smaller one driven by a young woman and killed her. It happened on a Friday; his victim was 18 years old; and his sentence was this: He was to make public confession of his crime again and again, to audiences of young people like him. And, every Friday for the next 18 years, he had to make out a check in the dead girl's name for a dollar — one single dollar — and send it to her parents. Less than $1,000 all told, but it had to be paid one dollar at a time.

He stopped after six years because, he said, "it just hurt too much to continue." He offered to make out a dozen years' worth of checks all at once. The family wouldn't hear of it. The sentence, they said, was meant to guarantee that he "never forgets that he killed our daughter." This young man wasn't even behind bars, and he found his punishment to be too painful.

SOURCE: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison23feb23,0,5429485.column