John Couey Verdict

Time for me to get on my soapbox. Everyone who lives in the state of Florida knows about the Jessica Lunsford kidnapping and murder, a little girl about 9 in Homassassa , just north of Tampa, taken from her home in 2005, held in a trailer by a neighbor, sexually assualted and buried alive. I took a personal interest in this case not only because it is so close to home, but because I have neices her age. The verdit came down last week, Guilty. And last night, the penalty phase ended. It took the jury all of an hour to vote 10-2 for the death penalty for this scumbag. The judge gets the final decision, though it's rare for the judge to go against the jury's recommendation. So, he will probably sit on death row for a minimum of 10 years (longer than Jessica Lunsford got to live her life) , my tax dollars paying his room & board, food, and the eleventy zillion psychiatric evaluations he will probably go thru in the appeals process! I do not go along with the "coloring book defense", I do not believe for one minute that this guy is mentally retarded and didn't know what he was doing when he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford, hid her in a closet in his room, sexually assualted her, and then buried her alive under the ruse that he was "taking her home". He did it, he knows he did it, he fled, he got caught, he admitted it....and then he denies it and says he's retarded from a bad childhood. I'm sorry, a bad childhood is not a valid excuse to go out and hurt people, ya wanna talk bad childhoods? Sit down and have a drink with me, I'll tell you some stories! You RISE ABOVE the garbage, and you become a better person despite the people who tried to hold you down, hurt you, and tell you that you are worth nothing. Hat's off to Mark Lunsford, Jessica's Dad, a former truck driver turned crusader, pushing for better legislation to protect our children from these kind of creeps. He got the Jessica Lunsford Act passed, and then went around the country to push for it in other states. This guy is a class act, he has risen above personal tragedy to help others, he was composed the entire trial as he waited for justice for his daughter, I can't say enough good things about him. God Bless him, and the work he continues to do. Now, what about the other people who lived in the trailer with John Couey? What happens to them? They did not know Jessica was in the house, but they did know he was, and when the police came knocking on the door, they denied, more than once, that John Couey lived there, or had been seen by any of them?! Had they told the truth, Jessica would still be with us.....they need to be held accountable for their actions as well, they are just as guilty as he is.