Sad news: Carli Brucia was found dead

[H2Andy]

i am so sorry, i am very upset about this and i hope you guys don't mind
me posing this...

as you may know, Carli's body was found earlier today.
Story

i was hoping for the better, but this is just so sad. i am just so pissed off
at these people that just take children and hurt them like this.

god i am so angry. i wish i could shoot him in the kneecaps and leave him
writhing in pain for a few hours and then cut off his ***** and let him
bleed to death, that's how angry i am.

please educate yourself and your children about how to prevent
this type of thing, and thank you for letting me rant.

 

[ScubaTexan]

Whatever punishment he receives will never be enough...

 

[ElectricZombie]

god i am so angry. i wish i could shoot him in the kneecaps and leave him
writhing in pain for a few hours and then cut off his ***** and let him
bleed to death, that's how angry i am.

I second that statement.

Unfortunately, in our ultra PC world, this guy will never get the punishment he really deserves. That guy should have never been released from prison in the first place.

I was hoping the kid would still be alive, but at least they got the perp.

 

[Kat]

Sometimes the other prisoners will take justice into their own hands.

Jeffrey Dahmer is a good example.

That poor little girl. My thoughts & prayers are with her family.

 

[Marebythesea]

Yes, parents need to be vigilant and children need to be educated over and over again, but we too have a responsibility...

Smith, the animal that killed Carlie, had been arrested at least 13 times in Florida. He had been arrested for domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon and trying to kidnap a young woman in neighboring Manatee County in 1997. Despite testimony from a 20-year-old woman, who said Smith knocked her to the ground and threatened to cut her before she fled for help, he was acquitted of the kidnapping charge after days of testimony in 1998. Apparently the jury believed him over the victim when he testified it was a misunderstanding and he was only trying to keep the woman from running into traffic. When the police found him, he was hiding in the bushes as all innocent people do. He has had convictions for heroin and cocaine, being sent to prison for a year and released Jan. 1, 2003. Within two weeks of that release, he was arrested again on another cocaine charge. Despite his criminal history, a judge placed him on probation in March of last year.

If this pig had been put in prison where he belonged back in 1998, this child would be home sleeping peacefully in her bed with a family that adores, excuse me, adored her. The problem was not that Carlie went unsupervised. She was only 5 minutes away from her home, her father even left the house to go pick her up. The people in Florida may correct me, but the neighborhood she lived in is a very good one, not known for crime. In no way should that family carry any guilt or pain for what happened to this beautiful child. The people who should feel guilt are those jurors who found Smith innocent back in 1998 and the judge who let the verdict stand.

There is something terribly wrong with our judicial system when the rights of these men, and women, are held in higher regard than the lives of our children. And there is something terribly wrong with us, as a nation, when people are more enraged over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance than they are with these vile, lower than scum child killing predators.

Didn't mean to get on my soap box, but I'm a parent who can't imagine a world without my son or the unbearable grief and emptiness Carlie's parents are feeling and will continue to feel for the rest of their lives. I just pray she went quickly and unknowingly and that Smith is made to feel a long and painful death...

 

[Snowbear]

There is something terribly wrong with our judicial system

All too often it seems the rights of the accused and/or convicted hold more weight than the rights of their victims.
I've been following a trial here for the last couple of weeks that's pretty thoroughly demoralizing the victims who had the courage to come forward while the accused keeps calling them liars. There's a lot of fighting between the prosecutor and defense attorney about what irrelevant issues from the victims' past may be brought up in front of the jury.

 

[wapyaly]

This is awful. I have been following this story on skynews in the UK. I used to be a LEA in England but so got upset when the courts kept letting victims of crime down and letting offenders go free, I left because the job was making me depressed. You may have heard about Ian Huntley and Maxine carr who were convicted of the murder of two young girls from a little town near Cambridge. Luckily I had left the POlice just before this had happened, but of course a lot of my old colleagues worked the case. I just find this totally abhorent that these scum bags are allowed to walk the streets and keep getting released from the Courts and prison. This may seem like a right wing perspective but as far as I'm concerned the only thing they are good for is a bullet through their brain. They have nothing positive to add to their communitites or society and should be disposed of. Would save a lot of pain and anguish and be less of a burden on tax payers pockets. This just makes me angry. I feel so for the family. Its just awful. I too hoped she would be found alive.

 

[diverbrian]

Yes, parents need to be vigilant and children need to be educated over and over again, but we too have a responsibility...

Smith, the animal that killed Carlie, had been arrested at least 13 times in Florida. He had been arrested for domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon and trying to kidnap a young woman in neighboring Manatee County in 1997. Despite testimony from a 20-year-old woman, who said Smith knocked her to the ground and threatened to cut her before she fled for help, he was acquitted of the kidnapping charge after days of testimony in 1998. Apparently the jury believed him over the victim when he testified it was a misunderstanding and he was only trying to keep the woman from running into traffic. When the police found him, he was hiding in the bushes as all innocent people do. He has had convictions for heroin and cocaine, being sent to prison for a year and released Jan. 1, 2003. Within two weeks of that release, he was arrested again on another cocaine charge. Despite his criminal history, a judge placed him on probation in March of last year.

If this pig had been put in prison where he belonged back in 1998, this child would be home sleeping peacefully in her bed with a family that adores, excuse me, adored her. The problem was not that Carlie went unsupervised. She was only 5 minutes away from her home, her father even left the house to go pick her up. The people in Florida may correct me, but the neighborhood she lived in is a very good one, not known for crime. In no way should that family carry any guilt or pain for what happened to this beautiful child. The people who should feel guilt are those jurors who found Smith innocent back in 1998 and the judge who let the verdict stand.

There is something terribly wrong with our judicial system when the rights of these men, and women, are held in higher regard than the lives of our children. And there is something terribly wrong with us, as a nation, when people are more enraged over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance than they are with these vile, lower than scum child killing predators.

Didn't mean to get on my soap box, but I'm a parent who can't imagine a world without my son or the unbearable grief and emptiness Carlie's parents are feeling and will continue to feel for the rest of their lives. I just pray she went quickly and unknowingly and that Smith is made to feel a long and painful death...

Knowing that this thread will likely be pulled, I have tried to keep the comments to myself. Oh well, my self-discipline obviously needs some work, LOL.

The jury is only told what pertains to the case at hand. Much of what you saw in the media about his prior convictions was most likely due to this fact. I am human. If I know that I have a guy in front of me that has been convicted of other things several times, I am likely to give the prosecutor the benefit of a doubt. As a result, most judges keep prior convictions and indictments out of court unless they are strictly germane to the case in front of the jury at that time. Remember, if any evidence comes up that was in the pre-trial motions (ie. Brady evidence), the jury is sent out of the courtroom right there and then. Just because you see it on the TV news doesn't mean that the jury was aware of it until after the trial.

In short, the jury that acquitted this creature on the prior case was likely told that this guy was an upstanding citizen until that case, LOL. The prosecutor has the burden of proof. For instance, I don't blame the jury for many acquitals. I blame the prosecutors who bungle the cases or just the circumstances where the prosecutor might THINK they have sufficient evidence only to get it shot down before a jury hears about it. This is a tragedy and I dearly hope that this guy gets what is coming to him. I honestly feel that life in a small cell is a worse punishment than a quick, merciful death. After he dies, I hope that he rots in you-know-where.

As to the family, it sounds like they did all that they could. It is times like this that I am glad not to be a parent and have the direct concerns of a parent.

 

[Snowbear]

Knowing that this thread will likely be pulled...

These types of threads do tend to get a bit heated, but if we keep it civil it may be spared?

So - I actually don't blame the juries for not convicting a slimeball. I hope that most people who serve on jury duty do their best to be open-minded and unbiased when hearing a case. I hope they base their judgement on what was presented to them. The Founders thought it was so important that we be judged by our peers rather than by some individual with the power to hang us just because they think we're guilty they wrote it into our Bill of Rights. Personally - I think this is a good thing. I also think it's a good thing that a judge cannot single-handedly overturn a "not-guilty" verdict, or order another criminal trial because he didn't like the verdict.

Unfortunately sometimes, the judge does have the power to say what the jury can and cannot hear. They also have the power to allow plea-bargaining to lesser charges - in other words, let someone walk without paying the price for what they did. They also have the power to overturn a jury's "guilty" verdict - this I is probably OK, as long as some kind of evidence came up that PROVES the verdict was in error. Anyhow - this power of the judges is where the injustice to the victims (past and future) is greatest, in my not always humble opinion.

 

[Genesis]

The issue here is not one of juries - it is one of a single judge.

This scumbag was in front of that judge SEVERAL TIMES for violating his probation, most recently just a short while before he did this.

Now when you violate probation, you're supposed to go BACK TO JAIL.

This judge did not return him to jail. Multiple times.

If he had, Carlie would be alive.

Now, exactly who's fault is this, and why is this judge not on trial for manslaughter?

We need to start holding the judges accountable when the law says that they are supposed to do <X> and they simply ignore what the law says.