OT - Michael Rafferty found guilty on all three counts!

[LSmith]

I followed this case from the day I saw the video of Tori being led away by the woman in the white jacket.

Two horrific monsters are now locked up for 25 years.

Unfortunately there are other monsters out there wanting to take our children who spend their time fantasizing about what Rafferty did to Tori.

You're right. It's true. Only some get the actual nerve to do it but many, many would like to and would given the opportunity. Seems to help if you have a willing partner (girlfriend, wife).

Call me a helicopter parent all you want but I keep my kids close.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I disagree that daily updates from the court room are needed to ensure a fair trial.

1. There are still public, press etc in the court room
2. There are official court room records taken of the entire proceeding.

Just have one report once the verdict is read that provides a summary of the proceedings. (which they did anyway, even though they had been reporting daily on the trial for almost a month)

I just really don't need to hear about a little girl being raped and killed daily. "Change the channel" is what will be suggested, and I do, but my local news (London, Ontario) only has so much time per day, and they waste it on the Rafferty trial instead of reporting on other local happenings.

Much as this kind of information is often very difficult to take in (and deeply disturbing), I think the public (whose taxes support our legal system) deserve to have the information made available should they choose to hear it.

There is something to be learned from every situation, no matter how gruesome that situation may be. Even if the only lessons are "life is short", "bad things happen to good people", or "keep those that you love close to you", we take something away from every news story. Maybe it makes us more careful. Maybe it opens our eyes to the evil that lurks in the world, and helps us be less naive (and in some way, a better parent). Maybe it helps us learn not to sweat the small stuff.

Certainly the local news needs to be reported as well, but these kind of cases deserve the bulk of the airtime, IMHO. The winners of the local gardening contest are nice to know about, but justice for Tori seems so much more important in my book.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Problem with the death penalty, (it doesn't apply to this case) but you end up killing innocent people (or nearly killing them) see the Steven Truscott case for example.

And that's why I posted it. When it is proven, then there is every reason for the death penalty.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

And that's why I posted it. When it is proven, then there is every reason for the death penalty.

But I'm sure that the juries in the Steven Truscott case, and all the other cases that were later overturned, also believed that the cases had been proven, otherwise they wouldn't have come back with a guilty verdict.

TP

 

[roxysmum123]

I don't think he will ever MAKE it out.They don't have very high regard for child killers in prison.

This is such a high profile case, he'll be in protective custody or solitary. They can't risk anything happening to him.

 

[archdandy]

I think it's odd that a lot of people in here are clamoring for Rafferty to be killed either through the death penalty or through the other prisoners but nobdoy has mentioned anything about his girlfriend. She was just as much a part of it as he was. That woman lured Tori away and delivered her to Rafferty to sexually abuse. It's bad enough for a man to do something like that to a child but a woman doing that just seems worse somehow. I'm not a believer in the death penalty and in cases like these I don't think the death penalty would have been punishment enough. It would have been too easy for Rafferty to just die. Now he gets to rot away in prison for the rest of his life. My two cents anyways.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I don't think anyone is ignoring what TLM did, at all. As the judge said about MR, she is also a monster. But she did plead guilty and she did give MR's name. And this was his trial.

TP

 

[HunterBoo]

If only he would be put into the general population - maybe feeling a bit of fear the way his poor little victim did would be a good punishment ... unfortunately they will protect his little butt and keep him in a similar situation as Bernardo. We will pay more money to feed these two psychos than we will ever pay to feed our seniors in nursing homes ... we will provide them protection at every turn ... do it like Dahmer (and he requested it) ... put them in the general population and they will take care of these lowlifes. Even criminals hate people who commit these horrible crimes against children ... I don't know if anything that could ever be bestowed upon them would be enough justice - how can we ever equate anything with what he did to that to that innocent little child

RIP sweet, innocent Tori