How kind of the Boulder County District Attorney’s office in Colorado to issue a statement today officially clearing the Ramsey family of involvement in the horrific murder of six year old JonBenet Ramsey at her home – in 1996![1]
According to the family lawyer, JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, was “grateful” for the statement.
Personally, I wouldn’t have been “grateful”, but furious that a case so badly bungled from the start by the Boulder Police Department, allowed to degenerate into a media witch-hunt in which the parents of JonBenet were accused and castigated, has been allowed to drag on for twelve years.
Trial by media in this country is a common occurrence. The emphasis is undeniably ‘guilty until proven innocent’. The Ramsey case is, perhaps, one of the worst examples of its type, compounded by a degree of police ineptitude staggering even for the United States. (This BBC report from August 2006 gives a concise synopsis)[2]
JonBenet’s mother, Patricia, didn’t live to hear this verdict. She died from cancer two years ago, her disease undoubtedly aggravated by the stress of public condemnation.
Research into the case leaves one feeling there are a great number who should suffer shame for the moral crimes committed while the search for this little girl’s killer was so ingloriously conducted.
Whoever did kill JonBenet Ramsey is just one of many with reasons for remorse.
[1] JonBenét Ramsey Wikipedia.
[2] “JonBenet: The case that grips America” BBC, August 29th 2006
Filed under: Endemic injustice
Just another reason to blow up your TV and avert your eyes from the publications at the grocery checkout.
Flimsy – yes, but we shouldn’t have to do that. The media isn’t there to feed us want they like. They’re supposed to serve the public, not dictate. Obama is right about one thing, it’s time for change. Of course, whether he’ll choose to deliver it is another matter.
This was not a verdict. There has been no verdict. If this Touch DNA was deposited during the commission of the murder, all it means is that there was someone else there besides the family at the time. It doesn’t mean no family members were involved. It actually makes the situation even sicker. Have they performed Touch DNA testing on the “ramsom” note and the pen, and if not, why not? They have repeatedly said that there was chronic vaginal trauma. Why has that not been thoroughly investigated and prosecuted separately from the murder?
Karen – the complete investigation has been a travesty from the beginning. The police convinced themselves at the start of the inquiry that it was family, and set out to prove that, failing to follow up any other leads and destroying much of the evidence that may have led elsewhere.