�
 |
|
 |
|
|
| Brooke Bennett - Missing 12-Year-Old Vermont Girl - Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next |
| View previous topic
:: View next topic |
LISA
 Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:59 am |
|
|
|
Bennett Case Reignites Jessica’s Law Debate
Michael Henrich
Posted: July 4, 2008 04:51 PM EDT
Updated: July 4, 2008 04:59 PM EDT
A convicted sex offender was charged this week with kidnapping a pre-teen who was later found dead, and that news has reignited the debate about how Vermont punishes those convicted of sex crimes.
Two years ago, Vermont's Legislature adopted a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for certain sex crimes. The law also allowed for a lifetime maximum sentence for certain crimes. However, advocates of Jessica's Law, which called for a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence, remain unsatisfied.
State Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Legislature chose a lower mandatory minimum to avoid allowing suspected criminals to walk free. He said most sexual assault cases are resolved with a plea bargain. If a 25-year minimum was adopted, he said defendants would push for a trial instead of accepting a deal. Often, he said it is very difficult to get a conviction in these cases.
"For most of these crimes there is no witness other than the victim and many times these victims are very young and it's difficult to put them on the stand," Sears said.
Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, a Republican, renewed his call for Jessica's Law through a statement Thursday.
Sears said Vermont's sex offender laws have made great strides in recent years. In 2005, the state stopped allowing sex offenders out of their jail sentence early, eradicating the "time off for good behavior" policy.
"That was a major step when you look at Mr. Jacques and the fact that he was out in three years for the terrible crimes he committed back in the '90s," Sears said.
Michael Jacques is the uncle of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, who was last seen alive in public June 25. Bennett's body was found Wednesday near Jacques' home. Jacques was convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault in 1993.
http://www.fox44.net/Global/story.asp?S=8621255
|
|
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1753
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Arubalover
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:19 pm |
|
|
|
It's criminal how many children and adults alike have to be killed before the lawmakers wake the f*ck up and realize that these sex offender bastards cannot be reformed.
|
|
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Posts: 939
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:42 pm |
|
|
|
| Arubalover wrote: | | It's criminal how many children and adults alike have to be killed before the lawmakers wake the f*ck up and realize that these sex offender bastards cannot be reformed. |
I am so sick of hearing this argument:
State Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Legislature chose a lower mandatory minimum to avoid allowing suspected criminals to walk free. He said most sexual assault cases are resolved with a plea bargain. If a 25-year minimum was adopted, he said defendants would push for a trial instead of accepting a deal. Often, he said it is very difficult to get a conviction in these cases.
"For most of these crimes there is no witness other than the victim and many times these victims are very young and it's difficult to put them on the stand," Sears said.
=========
If a high-ranking state official's daughter was raped and murdered, I'd be willing to bet the death penalty would be brought back.
Edited for spelling.
Last edited by tulsad on Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:47 pm |
|
|
|
Kidnapping is a Federal crime; kidnapping resulting in the death of the victim is punishable by the DP. Anyone knowledgable in Constitutional law who knows why child-rape/murder couldn't be made a Federal crime?
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| gwen
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:43 pm |
|
|
|
Funeral for Brooke Bennett, 12, of Vermont to Be Held Wednesday
Saturday, July 05, 2008
A funeral will be held for 12-year-old Brooke Marie Bennett on Wednesday at the Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vt.
The viewing will be Tuesday evening at the same location.
Brooke would have turned 13 on July 12.
Her body was found last Wednesday in a shallow grave in Randolph, a week after she was last seen on a convenience store video walking out of the store.
Brooke's uncle Michael Jacques has been charged with kidnapping. Police have not released a cause of death.
An obituary for Brooke in Saturday's Barre-Montpelier Times Argus says she loved her cat Lily and her dog Scruffy and liked to eat bagels, popcorn and spaghetti.
At first, Brooke's disappearance appeared to be a story of an abduction by an Internet predator who befriended the Braintree girl through her MySpace page.
But now prosecutors charge her abduction was planned by an uncle with a history of sex crimes who used Brooke's MySpace page and a series of e-mails he sent using aliases to plan her abduction while deflecting attention from himself.
A 14-year-old girl, known in court papers as Juvenile 1, last saw Brooke alive when she was going upstairs with Jacques, 42, in his Randolph home on June 25, after Brooke was dropped off at a convenience store.
Juvenile 1 told police it was her understanding that Brooke was to be initiated into a "program for sex" that Juvenile 1 had been involved with since she was 9 years old.
A week later, Brooke's body was found buried about a mile from Jacques' house.
Police and prosecutors haven't released the cause of Brooke's death, they haven't said she was murdered nor have they offered a motive for the kidnapping. But the federal kidnapping charge against Jacques carries with it a possible death sentence.
The investigation continues, but officials said Thursday they knew of no other victims of what was once feared to be a sex ring.
"This is the type of investigation where we are following every single lead," Vermont U.S. Attorney Thomas Anderson said at a news conference in Burlington. "Wherever it takes us, wherever the facts take us, is where we will go."
Neither the Vermont State Police nor FBI released any information on the case Friday, the Independence Day holiday.
Another defendant in the case, Raymond Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Brooke's former stepfather, was charged on Wednesday with obstructing justice in the case. The FBI says he had his roommate in Texas throw out a computer believed to contain child pornography as well as images of Juvenile 1 having sex with her underage boyfriend.
A court affidavit by an FBI agent investigating the case said Jacques and Gagnon had several lengthy telephone conversations in the hours after Brooke was reported missing late on June 25 and early June 26.
Brooke's disappearance sent a chill through Vermont when police issued the state's first Amber Alert. A video from the convenience store showed Brooke and Jacques together and then going in separate directions after leaving the store.
At first, state police called it a MySpace case, believing that Brooke had met with someone she had befriended online and then lied to her family about her plans that day to meet a friend in Randolph and visit a hospitalized relative of that friend.
Now prosecutors say it was Jacques who provided police the story about the meeting and that he and Juvenile 1 picked Brooke up in Randolph and took her to Jacques' home. Jacques also found one of Brooke's shoes near a small lake in Brookfield and planted pieces of her clothing nearby that were later found by police, investigators said.
E-mails in the court documents released Thursday described how Juvenile 1 helped Jacques plant some of the false evidence, prosecutors said. Jacques coached Juvenile 1 on obtaining and preserving semen from her boyfriend to be placed on a pair of Brooke's underwear, to throw investigators off the trail.
Jacques has a history of sex crimes dating to 1985 when he was charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl about 100 times. Prosecutors eventually dismissed that case.
In 1993, Jacques was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping. An affidavit in the case said Jacques tied up the victim and threatened to kill her while he sexually assaulted her.
He was sentenced to six to 20-years in prison, but he was released early because of the Department of Corrections' "good time" policy in effect at the time.
Brooke's father Jim Bennett and her stepmother Janet said they knew of Jacques' history as a sex offender, but he never saw any signs of trouble when Brooke and her uncle were together at family gatherings.
"That's not something you tell a little girl," Janet Bennett told the Valley News of Lebanon, N.H. "She was just a beautiful little girl."
Jim Bennett said parents needed to keep a close eye on their children, even around family because, "It's not just strangers you've got to watch out for."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376724,00.html
|
|
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SavannahStar
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:53 pm |
|
|
|
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS01/807050339/1002/NEWS01
May 8:
Michael Jacques, posing as a man known as "E" and using an e-mail address referencing a Chevy Truck, sends an e-mail to a juvenile female, whom police say Jacques has been sexually abusing for several years. "E" claims to be hunting wild zebra in Africa and expresses strong romantic love for the juvenile female.
12:28 p.m.: The girl responds, stating, "i love you and that will never change."
Jacques, now posing as a man named Rauel Domingo and using a different e-mail address, e-mails the juvenile girl inquiring about her recent sexual history. She responds later that day, detailing a sexual encounter with a juvenile male. Police say the two e-mail accounts for "E" and Domingo were only accessed at Jacques' home and work.
May 28:
Jacques, posing as Domingo, e-mails the juvenile girl and asks her to "come up with a plan that make it so that Nobody knows where she is." He suggests kidnapping Bennett before June 7 or waiting until June 16.
The girl e-mails back suggesting a ruse where Bennett is lured to a location by a "hot guy." She writes that she wants to see Bennett "suffer."
June 16:
Jacques orders $1,033.45 in sex toys from a Web site. The delivery address is his home in Randolph.
June 20:
2:20 p.m.: Jacques, posing as "E", e-mails the juvenile female and mentions the possibility that Bennett's kidnapping might be delayed from Monday until Wednesday or Thursday. He encourages her to convince Bennett to attend the "party" they are planning.
5:50 p.m.: "E" sends the girl another message, saying they have run into some "unexpected problems" and doesn't want to risk Breckenridge - the name for a real or imagined child sex ring - "being in danger." He again encourages her to convince Bennett to come to the "party" and also inquires about a recent sexual encounter the girl had with a juvenile male.
5:56 p.m.: Jacques, posing as Domingo, e-mails the female juvenile, asking her if she would assist in the "take-down" of Bennett the following week. "Just remember the reasons why it must be done and remember that it will go PERFECTLY if everyone does what they are suppose to do," he wrote.
June 21:
11:34 p.m.: The second juvenile female responds to the message from Domingo, writing that she will help with "the tie down."
June 23:
1:34 p.m.: Jacques, posing as "E", e-mails the juvenile girl and asks her to collect some of her boyfriend's semen to plant as evidence in Bennett's disappearance. "Text me when it's done and simply say 'it's done,'" he wrote. "Very important, thanks."
June 24:
11:40 p.m.: Jacques logs onto Bennett's MySpace profile and posts a message making it appear that she has run away to meet a boyfriend. He edits the entry again at 11:52 p.m.
According to police, Bennett spent the night at Jacques' home.
June 25:
9:20 a.m.: Bennett is dropped off at the Cumberland Farms in Randolph by Jacques and another unnamed female juvenile. Footage from the security camera shows Jacques and Bennett inside the store, although they go in separate directions when they leave.
9:45 a.m.: Bennett is seen by a witness at the Randolph Village Laundromat.
9 p.m.: Bennett's grandmother reports her missing to the Vermont State Police.
9:26 p.m.: Jacques makes the first of four phone calls that evening to Raymond Gagnon, a close friend and Bennett's former stepfather, who is now living in Texas. Jacques supplies Gagnon with Bennett's MySpace username and password. Gagnon logs onto her profile twice later, police say, and changed her password to the account.
10:36 p.m.: Jacques again logs onto Bennett's MySpace profile and edits the fake entry he posted there the night before.
When questioned by police that evening, Jacques says he dropped Bennett off at Cumberland Farms and that she was to be picked up by a friend and driven to a nearby hospital to visit with a sick friend or relative. After dropping her off, Jacques said he bought a coffee at Dunkin Donuts. That story is backed up by the other juvenile female with Jacques.
June 26:
1 a.m.: Jacques leaves a message for a state police detective inquiring about the state of the investigation.
Sometime during the day, Jacques tells state police that he found one of Bennett's sneakers on the side of a road in Brookfield. Police later find blood, semen and torn girl's underwear nearby - evidence they now believe Jacques planted.
5:25 p.m.: An Amber Alert - the state's first - is issued by state police for Bennett. The FBI becomes involved in the case.
The second juvenile female, whom Jacques is accused of sexually assaulting over a period of five years, tells police she lied to them about going to Dunkin Donuts with Jacques after dropping Bennett off.
Forensic analysis begins on Jacques' laptop computer. Police first discover the "Chevy Truck" e-mail alias that he used in communication with the second juvenile female. Jacques tells police that the hard drive for his desktop computer is missing because it malfunctioned and he brought it to a Best Buy in Lebanon, N.H. to be repaired or replaced.
June 27:
10:30 a.m.: Police announce the discovery of Bennett's sneakers at a press conference in Burlington. They ask anyone who saw her that morning in Randolph on June 25 to come forward.
Police dive teams search the area of Sunset Lake near the Floating Bridge in Brookfield. Police say they are focusing on a person that Bennett may have been communicating with via MySpace, but stopped short of calling it abduction.
After a police inquiry, representatives of Best Buy say there is no record of Jacques dropping off a computer hard drive.
June 28:
Forensic examination of Jacques' laptop reveals the series of e-mails between Jacques and the second female juvenile.
June 29:
2:20 p.m.: After being confronted with the e-mails retrieved from Jacques' computer, the juvenile female admits to helping Jacques get Bennett back to his house on June 25 after dropping her off at Cumberland Farms. She also tells police about the so-called Breckenridge program, her introduction to the program when she was 9 years old and that Jacques is her "trainer."
She also tells police that she and Bennett watched television for a short time that day at Jacques' house. When Jacques asked Bennett to go upstairs with him, the juvenile female left the house with her boyfriend. She did not see Bennett again.
4:15 p.m.: Jacques is arrested for aggravated sexual assault.
June 30:
3 a.m.: Gagnon calls his landlord in Texas and asks him to dispose of a safe in his apartment. The landlord later told police he put it in a nearby dumpster, but the safe is not located.
1 p.m.: Police announce that the investigation into Bennett's disappearance had shifted to Jacques' property along East Bethel Road in Randolph. K-9 units, search and rescue teams and an aerial unit assist in the unsuccessful search of his property.
Jacques pleads innocent to the aggravated sexual assault charge in court and is held on $250,000 bail.
4 p.m.: Police identify Jacques as a "person of interest" in Bennett's disappearance during a press conference. Evidence collected from Jacques' computer contributed to the change in direction of the investigation, according to police.
State police and the FBI interview Gagnon, who admits to accessing Bennett's MySpace profile and possessing a "vast amount" of child pornography, all stored in a safe at his home in Texas. This pornography includes photographs of the second juvenile girl and the girl's juvenile boyfriend and he states that he and Jacques had a sexual encounter with her during the summer of 2007 in South Royalton.
July 1:
Police arrest Gagnon and charge him with obstruction of justice.
During a search along Crocker Road in Randolph, police find an area where the "ground was recently disturbed." The area is secured and a search begins.
July 2:
Court papers related to Gagnon's arrest are unsealed, revealing that the second juvenile female told police that she and Jacques picked up Bennett after first dropping her off on June 25.
4:45 p.m.: Police find Bennett's body in a shallow grave off of Crocker Road, a short distance from Jacques' home. Police say her death is "clearly suspicious" and that foul play is suspected.
5:32 p.m.: The U.S. Department of Justice announces that Jacques has been charged with kidnapping Bennett.
7 p.m.: More than 300 people attend a ceremony in Randolph to mourn the loss of Bennett.
July 3:
10 a.m.: Prosecutors hold a press conference in Burlington, announcing that they do not believe any other children are at risk of sexual abuse in the case. An autopsy on Bennett's body is conducted to determine a cause of death.
|
|
**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 20781
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SavannahStar
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:00 pm |
|
|
|
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8623432
Brooke's Parents Speak
Braintree, Vermont - July 5, 2008
"I actually viewed her yesterday and it's just.... I felt her. I felt that she was still with me. It's been awful," says Cassandra Gagnon, Brooke's mother.
It's a nightmare she says she'll never wake up from.
Her daughter, 12 year old Brooke Bennett, was murdered after allegedly being kidnapped by her uncle, 42-year old Michael Jacques.
"I'm very angry. I'm very, very angry. I'm very angry at my brother-in-la, very, very much so. Words can't describe the anger I've had," she says.
"You don't expect that kind of thing from family. It's just very hard to comprehend all of it," says Jim Bennett, Brooke's father.
Police have yet to connect Jacques to Brooke's murder. He's currently facing federal kidnapping charges and could receive the death penalty. Brooke's father and step-mom would like to see that happen.
"I hope they put him away forever and he rots in hell," says Janet Bennett, Brooke's stepmother.
Brooke's mother isn't so sure....
"I hate that I've got so much anger in me, but I think the death penalty is what he deserves, but I think that is a sweet justice for him," she says.
Both parents say they'll likely never forgive Jacques. Brooke's mother says she's currently just trying to forgive herself.
"I have already burned myself. If I could change this I would."
Cassandra Gagnon says she's offended by those who criticize her for letting Brooke stay with Jacques-- a registered sex offender.
Gagnon says she never allowed her daughter to visit Jacques house if another adult wasn't present.
"They have no idea. I could have been right next to her and someone could have grabbed her. I was at work and I knew where my children were. They always talk to me, so if people want to judge me, that's their choice, but to hell with them."
A family torn by conflicting emotions as they remember the 12 year old girl with an unforgettable smile.
"Her smile, yeah. She had a beautiful smile. A sweet girl," says her dad.
Keagan Harsha - WCAX News
|
|
**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 20781
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| gwen
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:06 pm |
|
|
|
Family or not, my daughter would never have been around that scum. Just disgusting! 
|
|
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Phantom
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:18 pm |
|
|
|
Funeral for Brooke Bennett, 12, of Vermont to Be Held Wednesday
A funeral will be held for 12-year-old Brooke Marie Bennett on Wednesday at the Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vt.
The viewing will be Tuesday evening at the same location.
Brooke would have turned 13 on July 12.
An obituary for Brooke in Saturday's Barre-Montpelier Times Argus says she loved her cat Lily and her dog Scruffy and liked to eat bagels, popcorn and spaghetti.
|
|
Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 3332
Location: My only friend, the end
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SideTracked
Posted:
Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:32 pm |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 1213
Location: Somewhere being sidetracked. . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BornCynic
Posted:
Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:00 pm |
|
|
|
| tulsad wrote: | | Kidnapping is a Federal crime; kidnapping resulting in the death of the victim is punishable by the DP. Anyone knowledgable in Constitutional law who knows why child-rape/murder couldn't be made a Federal crime? |
The short answer is it is. If you are refering to the Louisiana law that the Supreme Court recently overturned the difference is that law called for the death penalty where no life had been taken. The Supreme Court simply said that the Death Penalty for a sex crime in which the victim lived was cruel and unusual punishment. In this case they chose Federal over State law specifically because the death penalty can apply. Even though it doesn't appear that Jacques crossed any state borders with Brooke, Federal law applies because he used an instrument of interstate commerce ie, the internet, to plot her abduction and additionally some of the E-mails he sent "Juvenile 1" were authored from his computer at work which is in New Hampshire.
|
|
Joined: 31 May 2006
Posts: 60
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:13 pm |
|
|
|
| BornCynic wrote: |
The short answer is it is. If you are refering to the Louisiana law that the Supreme Court recently overturned the difference is that law called for the death penalty where no life had been taken. The Supreme Court simply said that the Death Penalty for a sex crime in which the victim lived was cruel and unusual punishment. In this case they chose Federal over State law specifically because the death penalty can apply. Even though it doesn't appear that Jacques crossed any state borders with Brooke, Federal law applies because he used an instrument of interstate commerce ie, the internet, to plot her abduction and additionally some of the E-mails he sent "Juvenile 1" were authored from his computer at work which is in New Hampshire. |
Thank you, BornCynic. Actually my question was the result of an erroneous assumption. I had always believed that Federal kidnapping statutes applied only when state lines were crossed; because I wasn't aware of the computer being in NH, I jumped at the possibility that Fed. law applied in any kidnapping. Because so many states are afraid or resistant to imposing appropriate penalites on child rapists and/or murderers (NH - fear that they won't get convictions; MA - James Fagan) and the Feds have no qualms such qualms, I got my hopes up.
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:14 pm |
|
|
|
| gwen wrote: | | Family or not, my daughter would never have been around that scum. Just disgusting! |
She hasn't commented on the fact that her own ex-husband is charged with child-rape for having sex with the 14 yr. old girl involved in this case.
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:31 pm |
|
|
|
NYT’s Greenhouse: Supreme Court Erred in Child Rape Case
BornCynic, thank you for mentioning this ruling - I wasn't even aware that it had been handed down. WOW! I had no idea that LA had the DP for the rape of a child under the age of 13.
July 2, 2008, 8:44 am
Posted by Dan Slater
For all the national controversy generated by Supreme Court opinions, it’s not often that we find ourselves disagreeing with the justices on the facts. But the NYT’s Linda Greenhouse, who, after 30 years covering the Scotus beat will put away her typewriter this month and report to Yale Law School, thinks she’s caught the Court out on a flaw in its facts.
Last week, in Kennedy v. Louisiana, the child rape case, Justice Anthony Kennedy (no relation), writing for a 5-4 majority, ruled categorically that the death penalty is forbidden for crimes against individuals that do not result in death. The decision nullified a Louisiana law that provided capital punishment for raping a child under 12. The law was since amended to apply to raping a child under 13. (Click here and here for past LB coverage of the Kennedy case.)
When Justice Kennedy concluded that capital punishment for child rape was contrary to the “evolving standards of decency” by which the court judges how the death penalty is applied, he based that holding, at least in part, on a factual determination that a child rapist could face death in only six states — not in any of the 30 other states that have the death penalty, and not under the jurisdiction of the federal government either.
“It turns out that Justice Kennedy’s confident assertion about the absence of federal law was wrong,” writes Greenhouse in today’s NYT. Over the weekend, reports Greenhouse, Dwight Sullivan, a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve who now works for the Air Force as a civilian defense lawyer handling death penalty appeals, wrote on his blog, in a post entitled “The Supremes Dis the Military Justice System,” that, in 2006, Congress revised the sex crimes section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to add child rape to the military death penalty. The revisions were in the National Defense Authorization Act that year. President Bush signed that bill into law.
As it turns out, Kennedy was not alone in his oversight. None of the briefs filed in the case mentioned the law. The Office of the Solicitor General, which represents the federal government in the Supreme Court, did not even file a brief, evidently having concluded that the federal government had no stake in whether Louisiana’s death penalty for child rape was constitutional. Jeffrey L. Fisher, the Stanford prof who successfully rep’d the defendant in the case, said that his research hadn’t turned up the law.
Will the case be reconsidered? Unlikely. While a losing party in a Supreme Court case can file a petition within 25 days asking the justices to reconsider their decision, the petitions require a majority vote and are almost never granted. Ted Cruz, who argued the case in support of Louisiana on behalf of a coalition of 10 states, told the NYT that the chance the Court would reconsider the decision was “extremely unlikely” even if Louisiana brought the omission to the justices’ attention. “A member of the majority would have to change his mind, but it’s obvious that both sides gave this case very careful consideration,” said Cruz.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/07/02/nyts-greenhouse-high-court-erred-in-child-rape-case/
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:39 pm |
|
|
|
Court bans death penalty for child rape
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 25, 7:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court declared Wednesday that executions are too severe a punishment for raping children, despite the "years of long anguish" for victims, in a ruling that restricts the death penalty to murder and crimes against the state.
The court's 5-4 decision struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12. It spares the only people in the U.S. under sentence of death for that crime — two Louisiana men convicted of raping girls 5 and 8.
The ruling also invalidates laws on the books in five other states that allowed executions for child rape that does not result in the death of the victim.
However devastating the crime to children, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion, "the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child." His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.
There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years, a factor that weighed in Kennedy's decision.
Rape and other crimes "may be as devastating in their harm, as here, but 'in terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public,' they cannot be compared to murder in their 'severity and irrevocability,'" Kennedy said, quoting from earlier decisions.
The victim in the case decided Wednesday was an 8-year-old girl raped by her stepfather at their home in Harvey, La., outside New Orleans.
Angry Louisianans who backed the law said the court was out of touch.
"The opinion reads more like an out-of-control legislative debate than a constitutional analysis," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican. "One thing is clear: The five members of the court who issued the opinion do not share the same 'standards of decency' as the people of Louisiana."
The decision resonated in the presidential campaign, too, where Democrat Barack Obama objected to it. Obama said there should be no blanket prohibition of the death penalty for the rape of children if states want to apply it in those cases.
With the court already on record this term reaffirming the constitutionality of capital punishment in a case dealing with lethal injection, Kennedy dwelt at length on the need to limit the death penalty to the most heinous killings.
The decision allows death sentences to continue to be imposed for crimes such as treason, espionage and terrorism, which Kennedy labeled as crimes against the state.
The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman.
Forty-four states prohibit the death penalty for any kind of rape, and five states besides Louisiana have allowed it for child rapists — Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
The court struggled over how to apply standards laid out in decisions barring executions for the mentally retarded and people younger than 18 when they committed murder. In those cases, the court cited trends in the states away from capital punishment.
In this case, proponents of the Louisiana law said the trend was toward the death penalty, a point mentioned by Justice Samuel Alito in his dissent.
"The harm that is caused to the victims and to society at large by the worst child rapists is grave," Alito wrote. "It is the judgment of the Louisiana lawmakers and those in an increasing number of other states that these harms justify the death penalty."
But Kennedy said the absence of any recent executions for rape and the small number of states that allow it demonstrate "there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape."
Kennedy acknowledged that the decision had to come to terms with "the years of long anguish that must be endured by the victim of child rape."
Still, he concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals, "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken."
He also cited arguments made by social workers and others that children and their families might not cooperate with authorities if a death sentence could result against the rapist. In many cases, including the one before the court, the victim and rapist are related.
The author of the Louisiana law, former Republican state Rep. Pete Schneider, said even opponents of the death penalty told him they would kill anyone who raped their children. "When are you going to have the courage to stand up for what's right for all of the people — but especially the children under 12 that have been brutally raped by monsters?" Schneider demanded, directing his comments to the justices in Wednesday's majority.
The last executions for crimes other than murder took place in 1964, according to a database maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Ronald Wolfe, 34, died in Missouri's gas chamber on May 8, 1964, for rape. James Coburn was electrocuted in Alabama on Sept. 4 of that year for robbery.
The case before the court involved Patrick Kennedy, 43, who was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana.
Kennedy was convicted in 2003. The girl initially told police she was sorting Girl Scout cookies in the garage when two boys assaulted her.
Police arrested Kennedy a couple of weeks after the March 1998 rape, but more than 20 months passed before the girl identified him as her attacker.
The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence, saying that "short of first-degree murder, we can think of no other non-homicide crime more deserving" of the death penalty. State Chief Justice Pascal Calogero noted in dissent that the U.S. high court already had made clear that capital punishment could not be imposed without the death of the victim, except possibly for espionage or treason.
The girl's mother was reached by The Associated Press following the court's decision Wednesday. "We don't talk about that," she said and hung up.
A second Louisiana defendant, Richard Davis, was given the death penalty in December for repeatedly raping a 5-year-old girl in Caddo Parish.
Local prosecutor Lea Hall told jurors: "Execute this man. Justice has a sword and this sword needs to swing today." Both men will get new sentences.
The case is Kennedy v. Louisiana, 07-343.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_child_rape
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| gwen
Posted:
Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:55 pm |
|
|
|
Prosecutor: Vermont Girl's Death Was Homicide; Uncle Held Without Bail
Monday, July 07, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A 12-year-old girl found dead last week in a shallow grave near her uncle's home was killed, a federal prosecutor said Monday at an initial appearance for the uncle on charges of kidnapping the girl.
Michael Jacques, who is accused of abducting his niece, Brooke Bennett, was ordered held until his trial on a federal kidnapping charge. His attorney, Michael Desautels, did not ask U.S. Magistrate-Judge Jerome Niedermeier to release Jacques.
"(Jacques) has a very serious criminal history demonstrating an extreme danger to the community," Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan said.
Nolan said Brooke's death was a homicide, but he didn't say how she was killed. No one has been charged with her death. State police say it could take eight weeks before autopsy results are available.
Jacques could face the death penalty if convicted under federal law of kidnapping resulting in Brooke's death.
Prosecutors say Jacques, 42, abducted Brooke on June 25. After a weeklong search, she was found buried about a mile from his home in Randolph, about 50 miles southeast of Burlington.
Jacques is a registered sex offender. He was convicted in 1993 of kidnapping and raping a woman he supervised at a fast food restaurant. Citing statements from another underage girl, prosecutors claim in an affidavit that Jacques tricked Brooke into thinking she was going to a party and instead took her to his Randolph home to initiate her into a child sex ring on the day she disappeared.
At a hearing in the same court earlier Monday, Brooke's former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, did not contest his continued detention on obstruction of justice charges related to the case. Gagnon, of San Antonio, is accused of having someone throw out his laptop computer a week ago while authorities were searching for Brooke.
Gagnon married Brooke's mother in 2000, but they later divorced.
During Gagnon's hearing, federal prosecutors in Alabama charged the 40-year-old with possessing child pornography at his former home in Cullman, Ala.
In affidavits filed in Vermont, the FBI said Jacques changed a posting to Brooke's MySpace account the night she was reported missing. Gagnon also accessed the account that night, but denied changing the posting, according to the affidavit.
In announcing the pornography charge, federal prosecutors in Birmingham, Ala., said Gagnon acknowledged trying to access the account again from a public computer in the Cullman library "on or about" June 26, the next day.
The complaint in Alabama said Gagnon flew from San Antonio to Cullman that day and on to Burlington on June 27.
Neither Jacques nor Gagnon has entered a plea.
Both defense attorneys left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
Preliminary hearings on evidence against both Gagnon and Jacques were scheduled for July 17.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,377281,00.html
|
|
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| LISA
Posted:
Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:46 am |
|
|
|
Hundreds Expected for Funeral of 12-Year-Old Vermont Girl Brooke Bennett
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Associated Press
BURLINGTON, Vt. —
Hundreds were expected to turn out for the funeral Wednesday of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.
Amid sprays of flowers, snapshots from her short life and somber greetings, mourners Tuesday remembered the girl — who disappeared and later was found dead — at a wake in the building where she just graduated from seventh grade.
Brooke's death was ruled a homicide.
"There's a lot of anger, and also a lot of sadness that it happened to her, because she was such a sweet girl," said classmate Kelsey Tracy, 13, wiping away tears after she emerged from the wake. "She was never mean to anyone."
Filing past a series of photo collages and the girl's open casket, friends and acquaintances — some wearing lapel buttons with her smiling face, a "Brooke" ribbon extending from the bottom — shared condolences and tearful embraces with her mother and other family members in an auditorium at Randolph Union High School.
The early arrivals to Brooke's wake stood on line in a hallway, where collages showing photos of the girl were posted on a table, before writing in a guest book and then advancing toward the stage in the front of the auditorium, where Brooke's body — clad in a yellow dress — lay in the casket.
"There's a lot of emotion, that's for sure," said Chadwick Morse, 29, of South Royalton, a co-worker of Brooke Bennett's father, James Bennett. "It definitely brings it home."
The small-town character of the girl's community makes the loss all that much harder, according to Randy Garner, of the Day Funeral Home, which was handling the arrangements.
"Everybody here is really very, very close," he said.
"It's like it's happened to you. It's a personal experience, because everybody knows somebody in the family and you tend to think that in small communities things like this don't happen, but they do, and we just have to realize that," he said.
Brooke's uncle, Michael Jacques, 42, remained jailed on a federal kidnapping charge, but he hasn't been charged in her death. Her cause of death hasn't been released, but federal prosecutors said Monday she was slain.
Her former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly having an acquaintance throw out his laptop computer as authorities were searching for Brooke. He has also been charged in Alabama with possession of child pornography.
Attorney General William Sorrell said Tuesday it's still unclear whether any sex ring existed. According to court documents, Jacques was planning to induct the girl into a sex ring when she disappeared after being seen at his home.
Asked if such a ring exists, Sorrell said: "We don't know for sure. However, we're not aware of any active organization trying to recruit children in Vermont for sex with adults. Law enforcement would be the first to raise alarm bells if that was the case.
"We don't know if there is, in fact, a Breckenridge society or something under a different name. What the investigation has found so far, as reflected in the filings in federal court, is that e-mails that allegedly were from members of this Breckenridge society originated from Jacques' home computer, or his workplace," Sorrell said.
Federal prosecutors in Alabama have charged Gagnon with possessing child pornography at his former home in Cullman, Ala.
U.S. Attorney Thomas Anderson declined comment Tuesday on whether Gagnon had images of Vermont children in what an affidavit said were child pornography images found on his computer.
According to the FBI, Jacques changed a posting to Brooke's MySpace account the night she was reported missing. Gagnon also accessed the account that night, but denied changing the posting, according to an affidavit.
Jacques and Gagnon, who have yet to enter pleas, are due back in U.S. District Court in Burlington on July 17. Telephone calls to their lawyers weren't returned Tuesday.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,378403,00.html
|
|
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1753
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| LISA
Posted:
Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:33 am |
|
|
|
Nearly 1,000 Attend Funeral of 12-Year-Old Vermont Girl Brooke Bennett
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Associated Press
RANDOLPH, Vt. — Nearly 1,000 people turned out to say goodbye to a 12-year-old girl who disappeared last month and was later found dead.
The funeral service Wednesday for Brooke Bennett, of Braintree, featured scripture readings by several clergymen and a plea by Pastor Thomas Harty of the United Church of Bethel. He told the girl's grieving family members and friends that they gathered as a community to say "never again," then implored the audience to repeat the words several times.
Bennett's uncle, Michael Jacques, 42, has been charged with kidnapping her, but authorities have yet to say how she died.
Brooke would have turned 13 on July 12.
*snip*
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,378403,00.html
|
|
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1753
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Phantom
Posted:
Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:04 am |
|
|
|
Parole Officer Recommended Release of Vermont Girl's Sex Offender Uncle
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Reversing what it said last week, the state Department of Corrections now says it recommended the release from probation of a convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.
Michael Jacques, 42, was released from probation in 2006, after serving more than four years in prison and being supervised for eight years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in 1992.
Gov. Jim Douglas said Thursday that the Corrections Department's recommendation was a mistake.
"That's why I've asked the corrections commissioner to look at the procedure for making these determinations, making sure there's adequate oversight, and that it's not just one or two people in the department making the recommendation on such an important manner," he said.
Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said that a probation officer had recommended in 2004 that Jacques be discharged from probation, after not supporting a release request the year before.
"Mr. Jacques has satisfied and fulfilled all case specific conditions of probation put in place to reduce his risk of re-offense," wrote probation officer Richard Kearney.
In 2004, with Kearney's recommendation, Judge Amy Davenport ruled that Jacques' probation end in 2006, as long as no violations occurred and despite strong objections from prosecutors.
"According to Mr. Jacques' probation officer, he is a 'probation success story,"' Davenport wrote in her order. "He is married and has a child. He and his wife own a home in which they reside. He has been very successful in his employment and is now in a position which entails significant responsibility."
Last week Jacques was charged with orchestrating the abduction of his niece Brooke, who disappeared June 25 and was found dead a week later. Her body was discovered in a shallow grave about a mile from his home.
In the earlier case, the state urged that Jacques be supervised for the maximum of 20 years given the brutality of the crime. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said the duration of Jacques' probation was indeterminate.
According to a police affidavit, in the 1992 case Jacques abducted the high school senior after she left a Barre bar, handcuffed her, put a rope around her neck and cloth in her mouth and forced her to engage in sex acts. He told her he had killed a girl in Arizona seven years earlier and at one point held a knife to the woman's throat, the affidavit said.
Davenport agreed with the state's assessment of the brutality involved, but disagreed with the state that he should spend another eight years on probation.
Jacques had completed a sex offender treatment program in 2000.
"The primary purpose of the probationary portion of the defendant's sentence was to ensure that defendant received appropriate rehabilitative treatment and to monitor him to ensure that he did not relapse and once again pose a threat to others," she wrote.
At his weekly news conference earlier in the day, the governor said Brooke's case warranted a serious discussion about the appropriate penalties for certain heinous crimes.
Jessica's Law, a tougher sex offender registry law and civil confinement, which would keep certain sexually violent inmates beyond their maximum prison terms should be on the table, he said. Death penalty for sexual assault on a minor with death resulting, which Douglas said a number of people are calling for, and chemical castration for violent sexual predators, also should be part of the discussion, he said.
Jessica's Law is named after a 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender in 2005. It requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years and electronic surveillance of sex offenders who prey on children under 12.
But Douglas stopped short of calling a special session of the Legislature, saying based on previous actions on his sex offender proposals he did not have confidence that the Legislature would be effective.
"I'm not going to call the Legislature back unless and until there's complete agreement on a package so it can be handled expeditiously," he said.
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said he would be open to a special session but said none of the governor's suggestions would have helped in this case.
He said he plans to ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to meet up to six times between now and Nov. 15 to examine why Jacques was released from probation; if sex offender laws passed since his 1993 conviction would have changed the alleged outcome; and what else can be done to make Vermont more safe.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington, said the question to be asked is: "How do we keep kids safe from people they should be able to trust ... I don't think you do that in a two-day special session."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380541,00.html
|
|
Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 3332
Location: My only friend, the end
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| gwen
Posted:
Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:05 pm |
|
|
|
FBI Searches Texas Landfill for Safe Belonging to Vermont Girl's Ex-Stepfather
Saturday, July 12, 2008
MONTPELIER, Vt. — FBI investigators searched a landfill for a safe allegedly belonging to the former stepfather of a 12-year-old Vermont girl whose body was found last week.
Investigators think the safe contains child pornography belonging to Raymond Gagnon, who was married to the mother of Brooke Bennett. Brooke vanished June 25. Her body was found buried in Randolph, Vt. after a weeklong search.
Gagnon, 40, faces obstruction of justice charges in the girl's disappearance and Michael Jacques, Brooke's uncle, has been charged with her kidnapping.
Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman, said investigators have searched for the safe over the last week.
"The focus of our assistance is the recovery of hard drives related to the investigation," Vasys said.
Gagnon rented a room in San Antonio from Kevin Grosenheider, who according to an affidavit told authorities he threw the safe into an apartment complex Dumpster near his home at Gagnon's request.
Grosenheider is quoted in an affidavit as saying he didn't know what was in the safe "but assumed it was child pornography." Grosenheider said he only told authorities that he assumed the safe's contents were something Gagnon didn't want discovered.
An affidavit in federal court in Vermont says Gagnon acknowledged keeping child pornography in his safe.
Gagnon married Brooke's mother in 2000, but they later divorced.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,381265,00.html
|
|
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tulsad
Posted:
Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:47 pm |
|
|
|
Former stepfather of Vermont girl indicted
Man faces charges of transporting, possessing child pornography
Wed., July. 16, 2008
SAN ANTONIO - The former stepfather of a 12-year-old Vermont girl found dead earlier this month was indicted on child pornography charges.
The U.S. attorney's office said a grand jury indicted Raymond Gagnon on Wednesday on charges of transporting child pornography in April 2007 and possessing a computer containing child pornography on July 1.
The 40-year-old San Antonio man's former stepdaughter, Brooke Bennett, disappeared June 25 and was found a week later buried in Vermont.
Gagnon faces obstruction of justice charges in the girl's disappearance. A lawyer listed for him in court documents didn't return an after-hours call.
Brooke's uncle Michael Jacques has been charged with her kidnapping. No one has been charged in her death.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25711103/
|
|
Sparkly Tree
Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 10139
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| AC
Posted:
Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:17 am |
|
|
|
Re: Former stepfather of Vermont girl indicted
| tulsad wrote: | Man faces charges of transporting, possessing child pornography
Wed., July. 16, 2008
SAN ANTONIO - The former stepfather of a 12-year-old Vermont girl found dead earlier this month was indicted on child pornography charges.
The U.S. attorney's office said a grand jury indicted Raymond Gagnon on Wednesday on charges of transporting child pornography in April 2007 and possessing a computer containing child pornography on July 1.
The 40-year-old San Antonio man's former stepdaughter, Brooke Bennett, disappeared June 25 and was found a week later buried in Vermont.
Gagnon faces obstruction of justice charges in the girl's disappearance. A lawyer listed for him in court documents didn't return an after-hours call.
Brooke's uncle Michael Jacques has been charged with her kidnapping. No one has been charged in her death.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25711103/ |
OK, I've been traveling a bit, so have not kept up with this case. WHY IN THE WORLD IS NO ONE CHARGED WITH THIS CHILD's Murder!!!!
|
|
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 3679
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BornCynic
Posted:
Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:49 pm |
|
|
|
Gagnon, Jacques hearings postponed
| AC wrote: |
OK, I've been traveling a bit, so have not kept up with this case. WHY IN THE WORLD IS NO ONE CHARGED WITH THIS CHILD's Murder!!!! |
The autopsy has not been released yet.
Now this....
July 18, 2008
Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER – Hearings scheduled in the criminal cases of Michael Jacques and Raymond Gagnon were postponed this week, according to prosecutors.
Jacques and Gagnon were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Burlington Thursday for preliminary hearings connected with last month's kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Burlington announced late Wednesday that attorneys for the two men requested delays in those hearings. Jacques, Bennett's uncle who is charged in her kidnapping, requested a 20-day delay and Gagnon, her former step-father accused of obstructing justice, asked for a two-week delay.
New hearings have not yet been scheduled, prosecutors said.
|
|
Joined: 31 May 2006
Posts: 60
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| AC
Posted:
Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:07 pm |
|
|
|
Hasn't this autopsy taken a long time to complete? This seesm strange to me. Thanks, BC.
|
|
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 3679
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SavannahStar
Posted:
Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:23 am |
|
|
|
| AC wrote: | | Hasn't this autopsy taken a long time to complete? This seesm strange to me. Thanks, BC. |
They said from the beginning it might take weeks.
I'm not concerned. Those guys are not going anywhere. Better to have a solid case against them and if it means a delay in the murder charge, so be it.
|
|
**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 20781
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
