Compassion for Criminals...

Sometimes I feel compassion for criminals. I can't really explain it. And I'm certainly not a liberal. I don't suggest that they not pay for their crimes. I just often sense that they have circumstances in their lives that overwhelm them and push them to the realm of bad behavior.

I want to talk about two cases, locally.

Let's start off with yesterday's bank robbery. Here's a young girl, 21, who walks into a Zion's bank in Ammon, hands the teller a note demanding money, then takes the cash and drives away. She apparently kept driving in the vehicle, and stayed in town for a few hours. [Me? I plan it. And I mean I plan it way in advance. I get a good disguise, borrow a car that I would soon ditch for another, and plan to leave town for quite a while. Anyway -- enough of my free advice to criminals.] This girl clearly is afraid, as you can tell by her mugshot. She's young, and she does NOT have a criminal mind, as evidenced by her lack of planning. She needs to pay, she should pay, but I can't throw her on the trash heap just yet. I think she has a chance to make something of her life once she's out of prison.

Then let's take this guy. John Beverly. He's 87. He wears a hearing aide, walks with a walker, and he needs a tank of oxygen. Yesterday he told the judge that he shot his wife. But this isn't your typical husband murder. Seems the wife may have been a real bitty. According to the suspect, they were arguing and there was a pistol there. She told him to take the gun, put it to his head, and pull the trigger. So he thought about it, felt that wasn't right, and couldn't take her anymore, so he shot her instead. (Not that that was right either...I'm just sayin') He will spend the rest of his days incarcerated, as he should. But, my heart and prayers go out to this man, oddly, because from what I can tell he's been picked on. Pick, pick, pick. At some point people break, and break he did. Too bad it was murder. He should have just thrown a vase and left.