Speechless with horror.

[cali]

Prosecutor Details Rape That Lasted 19 Hours

By JOHN ELIGON
Published: June 6, 2008

The time crept by so slowly and painfully that the 23-year-old Columbia University journalism student had decided it was time to end her life.

Over many torturous hours, she had been repeatedly raped, sodomized and forced to perform oral sex, a prosecutor told a jury on Thursday. The accused, Robert A. Williams, 31, had doused the woman’s face and body with boiling water and bleach, forced her to swallow handfuls of pills and to chase them with beer, sealed her mouth with glue, and bound her wrists and legs with shoelaces, cords and duct tape, said the prosecutor, Ann P. Prunty. And now, Ms. Prunty said, he was asking the woman to gouge out her own eyes with a pair of scissors.

And so the woman, sitting on the floor of her studio apartment in Hamilton Heights and holding a pair of scissors between her knees — the blade pointing toward her face — tried to stop the suffering. She lowered her face to the blade, but turned her head at the last moment, trying to stab herself in the neck instead of her eyes.

The scissors slipped from her grasp, the suicide attempt failed, and the woman suffered several more hours of torture, Ms. Prunty said.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/nyregion/06rape.html?ex=1370491200&en=bc60cf51266f5a15&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

[MonkeyFunk]

1. Ugh... I saw that earlier

just unfathomable. Unthinkable.

[opihimoimoi]

2. The asshole needs to die likewise.....make his death last 576 hours....

[cali]

5. I am wholehearted anti-death penalty but of course my immediate

emotional response is that he deserves it for what he did. However, I don't believe in going with that emotional imperative.

[panader0]

11. I too was against the death penalty nearly all my life.

Then I realized that there were defective units out there that can never be rehabilitated. Why should the taxpayer be burdened with paying for this garbages' incarceration? The amount spent on imprisonment for one prisoner is alot more than I make in a year.

[PeaceNikki]

13. Executions cost far more than incarceration

The typical death penalty conviction must go through several levels of appeal. All these appeals must be heard by the courts in virtually every case. Attorneys are paid dramatically more than prison guards. One prison guard is responsible for several prisoners, where one prisoner on death row typically employs several attorneys and legal staff for many years, all while still using your tax dollars in prison. Life sentences are rarely appealed. The typical life span in prison is about two dozen years, many of the most violent prisoners get murdered in prison, often as a prowess maneuver within the convict population.

http://www.sunfyre.com/deathpenalty.html

More:

According to a 1990 study, the total cost to build a maximum-security prison cell is $63,000, which breaks down to approximately $5,000 a year in principal and interest. The annual cost to maintain an inmate in this cell is approximately $20,000 a year. Together, these costs mean an annual expenditure of $25,000 to incarcerate an inmate. Based on a sentence term of 40 to 45 years, one inmate would cost the taxpayer only slightly more than $1 million—less than a third of what it would take to pay for the process that culminates in execution. A twenty-five-year-old woman convicted of first-degree murder would need to serve a life term to the age of 145 before the costs of incarcerating her would surpass those of executing her.

http://law.jrank.org/pages/5002/Capital-Punishment-COSTS-CAPITAL-PUNISHMENT.html

[opihimoimoi]

18. There has to be a cheaper way to protect the Public.....we must solve it soon.

[PeaceNikki]

19. Becoming civilized people would be a good start.

[opihimoimoi]

27. The Ignorance Reduction Dept???

[PeaceNikki]

28. Social support and mental health services might be a start.

This fucker had been in the "system" for years. It obviously did nothing to help and likely a lot of harm.

[pansypoo53219]

33. death is easy.

how do you sentence this beast to be raped repeatedly for the rest of his life? how about we send him to saudi arabia and let them deal with him. forget american law.

[Taverner]

Fuck

...

[blonndee]

3. ...

What the FUCK!

I'm not feeling too liberal right now about what I'd like to see happen to that absolute human FILTH. :mad:

[hobbit709]

6. absolute filth yes-human NO!

This misbegotten piece of crap doesn't qualify as human.

[BlueJazz]

57. True and I understand.....but...a part of me wonders if this person...

...can even be blamed entirely for his actions...I mean, no sane, normal human could possibly act like that and if his brain is that scewed up, should he be blamed....Punished Yes...Blamed ??...I don't know?

[Muttocracy]

4. awful. maybe warn (graphic) in your title?

:-( edit - my smiley had a typo

[goldcanyonaz]

10. Sometimes one has to see what they do not want to

,

[Lars39]

30. There are people here who have been raped who do not want to

inadvertently read things of this nature. A warning in the headline is immensely helpful.

[Muttocracy]

39. I was thinking of them and people with kids who might stroll by the computer. nt

[samdogmom]

7. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of being in that situation.....

words fail me at this point. I just don't get how some humans can act so cruel and bizarre!

[blondeatlast]

8. There are no words. May God giver her peace at last. nt

[rockymountaindem]

17. She didn't die n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

9. I am unequivocally against the Death Penalty...

And that's all I can say at the moment.

[mikehiggins]

12. Give him a fair trial

and then execute the bastard

[papapi]

14. Ghastly. This is one reason I hope there is a God.

[Catherina]

15. Words fail me

I've worked with horrible cases that broke my spirit before but this horror is unimaginable :cry:

What can possibly create such a monster.

God that poor girl :cry: :cry:

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. You might well ask

"What creates malfunctioning brain chemistry?"

Medical science is still working on that one.



While I fully understand the emotional reactions to such horror as this and agree with them to some extent, I also have to wonder what to say of a society that would put to death someone who apparently is not in control of his thoughts?

Then again, another part of me thinks, "Execute him and use his brain in medical analysis for further understanding of what drives people to do such things."

[Catherina]

43. I have very mixed reactions to the death penalty

Emotionally I'm against it but I think some people just grow up wrong and can never be fixed. I don't think anyone is born to become like that so such a brain would be affected and altered by childhood trauma already. I don't think it would help explain what drives people to do such things, just what the brain of someone who did such a thing now looks like.

Our society needs some serious fixing.

I have immense sadness for all these children growing up without love, without parents to care for them because the parents are too busy being exploited by a society that provides no safety net for the kids. Some victims remain eternal victims their entire lives and others become victimizers. It's heart-breaking.

[Spirochete]

16. I'm against the death penalty too

So I just have to hope the rest of this man's existence is made EXTREMELY unpleasant.

[SergeyDovlatov]

20. just put him to prison and make sure that details of his crime are known ...

He will be take care off

[LSparkle]

21. Pardon the crudeness but ... cut off his dick without anesthesia

Then make him live out his miserable life in isolation without any
stimuli -- no books, magazines, newspapers, internet, TV, ANYTHING.
So all he can do is just THINK ABOUT WHY HE'S THERE and ONLY WISH
he had a way to end his own life.

[goldcanyonaz]

22. hope he is fucked sideways and his penis cut off and inserted in his mouth

as he bleeds to death! Wow, perhaps i have watched too many movies but this works for me

[Clovis Sangrail]

23. it sounds like this guy fully deserves to die

I'm not against the death penalty because I don't think some people deserve to die... in my view there are people are richly deserving of death.
The person who did what this woman says was done is one of those people.

I am, however, very firmly opposed to the death penalty.
I don't trust the state to determine who deserves to die.. they make mistakes too often and there's no room for any error in that decision.

[MonkeyFunk]

61. Yep

that's my take on it. Some people don't deserve to live, but I don't trust any government to decide who those people are.

[BlueJazz]

25. I'm against the death penalty. We need to find a way to rehabilitate....

...people who do horrible things.
My heart bleeds for this poor Woman.

[PeaceNikki]

26. The key is to help people before shit like this happens. He'd been in the system for years

"...has a lengthy police record dating to his childhood, the authorities have said.

He was charged in a murder as a juvenile, though the outcome of that case is sealed, a law enforcement official said, and he spent eight years in prison for an attempted-murder conviction in 1996."

Fucking awful that he did this. :(

[stillcool]

35. I am beginning to have no problem

with the death penalty. I have come to the conclusion that people will never realize cause and effect, and never see that we are responsible for the monsters we create. But to be real, I think we should kill them young. I especially think that all foster children should die. What is the likelihood that these kids will be anything but a drag on society? It would be great if we could screen and treat mental illness, but with our health care system, that will never happen. Killing is both efficient and cost effective, as a preventive measure. I should add the sarcasm tag, but I can't.

[BlueJazz]

41. Well...I meant that someday (if money is spent on research) society..

...will devise a way to change an individual's brain chemistry or even their entire personalty.

Believe me ...my rage at such an act is great but my logical side fights to keep the Monster in. :)

[stillcool]

51. They could just do exit interviews.....

Juvenile Prisons are a great source. And anyone that makes it out of foster care provides a wealth of information. Some veterans are a treasure trove to study family violence, or what happens to kids whose parents kill themselves. Poverty is also a great breeding ground, but exit interviews wouldn't work there.

[Ghost in the Machine]

29. How do propose to rehabilitate someone like that?

Easy... gas his ass and hope he believes in reincarnation. He try for a better life next time because this one ain't worth a shit for him...

Reading this has enraged me. I have to hold old feelings back. There was a time I could make one phone call, and this fucker would be iced in prison before his jumpsuit got wrinkled...

That poor woman... I hope she finds healing and peace of mind, spirit & soul....

[PeaceNikki]

31. At this point, you probably can't.

The opportunity was many many years ago when he first came into the system. This might have been prevented.

[Ghost in the Machine]

47. I agree

but then again, I've been around the deeply incorrigible before, many with no redeeming social qualities to speak of...

Others just don't *want* to be rehabilitated, too..

[BlueJazz]

59. Post 41 and Post 57

Right Now...there is probably nothing that can be done.. ??
But Punish him...

[lonestarnot]

37. I'm against it too!

Let the fucker suffer in a box the rest of his natural fucking life. Publish his picture in the pen and his crime and trust me, he'll get his!

[JeanGrey]

49. THERE IS NO WAY. This man was involved in a murder

as A CHILD. People like this will never be normal. Had we locked him away then this poor woman wouldn't have suffered what she did.

[BlueJazz]

60. True..Read Post 41 and 57

:)

[CatWoman]

32. this is what the animal looks like

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/nyregion/21rape.html?_r=1&fta=y&oref=slogin

[JeanGrey]

34. There is not ONE REASON that this person deserves to

breathe air another minute.

[ben_meyers]

36. Remember the bastards face,

because when he gets out of prison in a few years his photo should be posted every where.


Robert Williams

[hedgehog]

38. This guy was once a helpless, charming infant. What went wrong?

[Muttocracy]

40. I can only think, brain chemistry off + some horrible thing early in life :(

[hedgehog]

45. If it's brain chemistry, then how much is he in control of his actions?.

If it's not brain chemistry, could it be that we all really fear that under the right conditions we would be as evil? We call him a monster and want to kill him to demonstrate to ourselves that we are different.

[Muttocracy]

46. I don't know, and I'm anti-death penalty. Though this one

and a few others I've heard in my lifetime give me pause. I actually think that 99.99% of us would NOT do that under any conditions - this was not self-defense, or a quick thing, or an accident. This was planned and prolonged and he did have his wits enough to try to blind her so she wouldn't be able to ID him. :(

[Bluerthanblue]

58. word

peace~

[stillcool]

52. some infants who have no mother...

turn out a little fucked up. Then some kids that are neglected, and abused get a little fucked up. Some kids who never live in one home longer than a couple of years get a little fucked up. And some kids that live in a really violent environment can get a little fucked up as well. This guy should have been whacked when he was a juvenile.

[Muttocracy]

42. The rest of the article is even worse - what a monster.

:(

[Lorien]

44. The details get worse:

Mr. Williams turned a clock by the woman’s bed to the wall and made her take off her watch so she would not know what time it was, Ms. Prunty said. He raped her repeatedly and cut her hair because “he wanted to see her face, her fear and humiliation.”

He made her sit in her bathtub, and that was the first time he told her to gouge her eyes, Ms. Prunty said. He punished her for refusing by boiling water in a kettle and throwing it on her, the prosecutor said. The water jolted her so much that she broke through the bonds on her wrist, Ms. Prunty said, as the skin on her chest, torso and thighs blistered. (On hearing this detail, one of the jurors shook his head and covered his mouth.)

“Just kill me! Just kill me!” the woman pleaded, Ms. Prunty said.

Later, after her failed attempt to kill herself with the scissors, Mr. Williams threw a heavy object at the back of her head, cracking her skull, Ms. Prunty said.

Mr. Williams was intent on damaging her vision because, Ms. Prunty said, “a blind witness could never identify her attacker.”

Mr. Williams eventually slit the woman’s eyelids and face with a butcher knife, Ms. Prunty said, but she did not lose her vision. He fastened her legs and arms to a futon, and she lost consciousness.

When she awoke, she again pleaded for him to kill her, but heard no response. He was gone.

Mr. Williams “only stopped when he could no longer feel the scourge of control over another human being,” Ms. Prunty said.





I hope she finds some way to recover from this. The scars will last a lifetime.



:grr: :cry:

[Ghost in the Machine]

48. I'd love to have 5 minutes alone with this piece of shit...

I can guarantee you he'd never harm another human being again...

[Fox Mulder]

50. The guy deserves to spend rest of his life in solitary confinement.

He's too much of a monster to be jailed in a normal cell and the death penalty would be a quick way out.

He needs to suffer.

[KamaAina]

53. Hamilton Heights. My old neighborhood.

When I first moved in there, about ten years ago, I walked up the block and heard someone say "Yo! There's a cop!" Apparently I was the first white person (not a cop, or buying drugs) who had walked up that block in quite some time. Then there was the time I needed to use the pay phone at the corner to call the phone company, and heard "You usin' that?" That was what I could afford in NYC.

I thought it was gentrifying. It is better that I am gone. :scared:

[Riddler]

54. There's only one punishment good enough to deal with scum like this....

gouge his eyes out, sew his lips closed, strip him naked, break his legs, and dump him in the middle of Death Valley to fend for himself.

[Captain Hilts]

55. To think most women are raped/murdered by someone they know.....nt

[PeaceNikki]

56. Most of the men who rape/murder women know them.

Jackson Katz: Violence Against Women Is a Men's Issue

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/06/02/jackson-katz-violence-against-women-is-a-mens-issue

Katz points out a pattern that has evolved regarding how the media uses passive voice and sentences when reporting gender violence. Using a board in the front of the room, Katz helped make his point by providing the audience with a concrete exercise to illustrate the power of passive voice (see below).

John beat Mary. (active)

Mary was beaten by John. (passive)

Mary was beaten. (passive)

Mary was battered. (passive)

Mary is a battered woman. (active)

"John has left the conversation long ago, while Mary evolves into the active victim," Katz said. "This evolution of victim-blaming is very pervasive in our society, because this is how our whole power structure is set up. We start asking why Mary put herself into a position to be beaten by John."

"If we really want to work on prevention, we need to start asking questions about John, not Mary," Katz said. "We won't get anything done until we start treating these issues as men's issues and shift the paradigm at the cultural level."

[Catherina]

62. The cowardly scum refused to face her. And she is a VERY BRAVE woman

But Williams wasn't there - he had chickened out earlier and refused to show up for his own trial.

That decision spared the victim from having to confront the man accused of holding her captive for 19 hours, trying to blind her with bleach, scalding her body with boiling water, carving up her face with a butcher knife - and trying to burn her alive.

The scars were hard to see on her pale face when she walked into the courtroom. But the fear was clear in her eyes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/06/06/2008-06-06_columbia_student_testifies_in_rape_case_.html



The former Bloods gang member tried to cover up the crime by wrapping the victim in a futon and torching her Hamilton Heights apartment, police said.

Prunty said the woman was too smart - and too tough - to die. She used the flames to melt the computer cables binding her to a futon frame. She also remembered everything, even faking blindness so she could "memorize distinguishing features," Prunty said.

She described this man to a T," she said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/06/05/2008-06-05_unspeakable_horrors_as_trial_opens_in_to.html



This is simply too atrocious. It leaves the soul stunned.