Murder Victim Andi Brewer
Karl Roberts was 35-years-old on May 15, 1999 when he kidnapped, raped and murdered his 12-year-old niece Andi Brewer. His defense was based on a head injury he suffered when he was 12-years-old and lost 15% of his brain, including a portion tied to the ability to understand consequences for one’s actions. The Prosecutor said he knew right from wrong. The jury sided with the prosecution and convicted Roberts of capital murder.
During the sentencing phase of his 2000 trial Roberts declared that, “I want to die.” The judge agreed and sentenced him to death. After the trial he waived his rights to appeal. On May 22, 2003 an automatic appeal resulted in the Arkansas Supreme Court upholding the death sentence by a 6-1 decision.
Hours before he was to be executed in January 2004, Roberts changed his mind and authorized his attorneys to appeal his conviction. A judge later issued a stay of execution. His attorneys argued that “no relevant or contemporaneous mental evaluation” was conducted when Roberts waived his right to appeal, therefore his appeal was invalid. On Valentine’s Day 2013, Andi’s mother sat through yet another hearing on the merits of Roberts’ latest claim.
Perhaps you can imagine the anger that shattered her heart when the Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously agreed with her daughter’s cold blooded killer and reopened the case. I can, because Rebecca DeMauro has been my friend since shortly after her daughter was murdered. She is correctly apoplectic about the fact that the state criminal justice system has allowed Roberts and his defense team to re-victimize her family as they dredge up the horrific and painful memories of little Andi’s tragedy over and over and over.
Murder Victim Travis Alexander
Jodi Arias is on trial in Maricopa County, Arizona for the brutal June 4, 2008 murder of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Her story has changed several times. Initially, she told investigators that she knew nothing about the crime. When confronted with evidence to the contrary she said that she was there, but intruders had broken into Travis’ condo and committed the horrific murder. By the time her trial began Arias’ story had changed yet again. Now, she is claiming self-defense.
In a scheme obviously concocted by Jodi and her able bodied defense team, Arias has spent more than 8-days on the witness stand thoroughly and in great detail assassinating the character of her murder victim. Despite absolutely no evidence to back up her claims she has accused Alexander of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Tragically, he is not able to defend himself because he is dead: he was shot in the face; stabbed 27-times; and nearly decapitated when his throat was slit from side to side.
Travis Alexander’s family and friends pack the court every day. Many have come from California at their own expense to represent their beloved Trevor in the courtroom. They listen with disgust and anger as Jodi’s lawyers lead her through the sewer of her memories…or is it her cold calculation? Unfortunately, Travis’ family cannot respond: they cannot defend Travis’ memory. All they can do is sit stoically, avoid eye contact with the jury, and choke back the screams of outrage that must remain stuck at the back of their throats. If they act out in any capacity they might provide grounds for a mistrial, and then they will have to sit through it all over again: the lies, the accusations, and the character assassination!
Altar Boys
Shana Rowan is the Executive Director of USA FAIR, a non-profit organization she founded that is dedicated to defending the indefensible: registered sex offenders. According to her official biography, Shana’s passion for registered sex offenders is personal and very close to her heart. She is engaged to marry a registered sex offender named Geoff. His support gave Shana the strength she needed to leave a long-term abusive relationship. Now his past is making it impossible for them to move on with their lives.
In her biography Ms. Rowan recounts his criminal behavior and portrays her fiancé as the true victim and she totally dismisses the very young half-sister that he serially abused. She argues that she and Geoff are victims of bad policy, and that sex offender registration and community notification laws (Megan’s Law) punish hundreds of thousands for crimes that a very small percentage of people might commit. She forgets that each and every person on the sex offender registration list has been convicted of, not committed as there is a vast distinction, at least one sex crime, almost always against a child or a woman.
Citing studies that demonstrate that sex offenders have a very low recidivism rate Ms. Rowan ignores the best known study of all: the long running Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal. For years, decades or perhaps centuries, high level Church leaders were aware that pedophile priests lurked in dioceses all over the world abusing young children. It was standard practice that pedophile priests, when found out, would be routinely shuffled between parishes and allowed to have continued, unsupervised access to children who they continued to serially rape. After years of investigation the Catholic Priest scandal exploded around the globe. The most significant finding is that cases worldwide reflect patterns of long-term abuse and the covering up and protecting of sex offenders. Given the opportunity, preferential sex offenders will continue to abuse children under the cloak of anonymity.
Megan’s Law is about denying perverts the cloak of anonymity. Each and every young victim, including Geoff’s victim, require years and years of psychological, emotional, and spiritual counseling. Many are hard pressed to put their lives back together, and all endure shame and guilt. Sex offender laws are not about punishing misunderstood men for youthful discretions, they are about protecting children and women from a known threat. Megan’s Law puts a public face on heinous crimes that for most of our history have been America’s dirty little secret.
Each of these three specific situations was enabled by institutions designed to protect and/or nurture the public. Victims and their families are being re-victimized in acceptable, status-quo ways. In one case, the Arkansas State Supreme Court has sided with an admitted baby rapist/killer and his American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) led legal team. Jodi Arias and her defense team decided that her road to redemption is to completely vilify the man she brutally murdered, despite evidence to the contrary. Finally, Shana Rowan cites the ACLU and other so-called social justice organizations as justification for her misguided bloviating.
My husband is on the sex offender registry because, when he was 25, he was arrested in an internet sting operation that involved an undercover officer going into an adult (for adults looking for other adults) sex chat room on Yahoo, claiming to be a sexually-experienced 15yo who had hooked up with guys she’d met online before, thought it was great, and was looking to do it again. “She” did mention her age, but in their months of conversation, never once mentioned parents, curfew, school, extracurriculars, friends, or anything indicating youth or innocence; the only activities she mentioned engaging in were sex, drinking, drug use, and shopping. “She” presented herself as no different from any of the adult women in the room seeking out sex, other than being a bit more eager to meet (when my husband didn’t push the conversation into sexual territory, she told him to “be a man” like the other guys she talked to).
My husband shouldn’t have continued the conversation. He was wrong. But, if this had been a real 15yo, she shouldn’t have been going into adult chat rooms trying to get older guys to sleep with her. My husband’s chat records and every computer he had access to was searched, and no images of minors or contact with minors (just the one adult officer–several decades older than my husband was at the time–pretending to be a teen a few months below the age of consent in our state) were found. The only images exchanged with the officer were headshots, and he had made no requests for lewd images or sent any. He was deemed by two therapists (his own and the court-appointed therapist) to not be a pedophile or a predator, or to pose a risk of reoffense. The judge who sentenced him agreed, and when he was on probation, he was allowed to go to playgrounds, parks, and schools if he was with his infant son (I was 7-1/2 months pregnant at the time of his arrest. This is not uncommon with men arrested for internet sex crimes like this. Apparently the stress of a new baby coming can cause some men to act out very inappropriately online).
He will be a registered sex offender for 25 years under our state’s laws. So will all of the other men arrested in the sting. Hundreds of men were arrested under the same circumstances. Many were in their late teens or early to mid 20s. There are 19yo guys who will be on the registry until they are 44 years old because of this sting operation.
Do you honestly believe that all of these men–every single one of whom took a plea, none of whom, from the stories I read, were implicated in any actual contact abuse at any point in their lives or even had child porn in their possession–are dangerous predators? Because it’s men like these–men who committed a single non-violent statutory offense (i.e., an offense committed with a *willing* post-pubescent teen 14-17 years old depending on the state) often when they were in their late teens or early to mid 20s themselves–who make up most of the registry in many states.
My husband will not be allowed to attend his youngest child’s high school graduation if the law doesn’t change. It will be 2029. My husband will be 50. He will have never committed a contact sex crime, and will have committed a single non-violent, victimless, online statutory offense two and a half decades before. But, it will be five months before his registration period is over, so he will have to stay home. Thanks to changes in MI state law, my husband can’t go grocery shopping without checking to see if there’s a preschool nearby, or he could be arrested; is that reasonable or fair or right?
Most men on the registry in most states are on for a single, non-violent statutory offense. They are not child rapists. They had some kind of sexual contact, perhaps only virtual, with a willing and eager (and sometimes initiating) post-pubescent teen (or a police officer pretending to be such). Do we think that every guy who was on Maury in the 90s on one of those “I’m 15 and don’t know who my baby daddy is because I slept with 17 guys” was a dangerous predator who should be locked up for life or at least put on a list?
Mr. Klass, I have felt your pain from day one of your beautiful daughters death. I have respected your fight for justice. Five years ago I found myself, a mom, a good mom of three wonderful sons on the other side of the “list”. I agree that people who hurt children and are likely to hurt again should be on the registry. My situation I think is different, and many many sons, brothers and parents have been swept up in this fear. I would like your true and honest opinion of cases like this. My son is a college graduate, and college history teacher, never broke a law, doesnt drink or smoke or do drugs. He did however get on a site that allows music and movie downloads. After his divorce he downloaded some adult porn, and a couple of the downloads had child porn on them. He was arrested, admitted they were on his computer and for that he lost his fiance, his home, his career, and any future he may have. He teaches in the prison system and watches over suicidal inmates. He will be listed on the registry and labeled the rest of his life. He did go to counseling and it was determined he had no interest in pedophila or violence of any kind, yet he is serving 6.5 years in a federal prison, and life time on a registry. Would you agree that in cases like this, counseling, probation, loss of career and some incarceration would be punishment enough? Do you really believe that people like my son should be punished for life. I really want to know how you feel. Thank you.
Shana Rowan doesnt give a damn about kids. She is a media whore who thrives on the spotlight under the guise of “fairness for freaks”. Make no mistake, the guy she is banging “raped” a 6 year old. He didnt fondle her, didnt urinate in her presence, didnt accidently step out of the shower and expose himself, he raped her. Having sexual intercourse with a 6 year old is rape no matter how ya wanna slice it. Geoff Her fiance’ is a deviate and should have had a needle stuck in his arm. He wasnt 12 when he committed this act he was an adult despite what Shana wants to BS too. All one has to do is look up his flyer, its there in black and white and much more disturbing than what little Shana wants to impart. He is a full fledged pedophile by every definition who uses porn and little kids to get off. Its just that simple and just that disturbing. But Shana being Shana doesnt like the repercussions of his status so she makes noise, lots of noise. Someone should ask Shana, “was surgery needed for this baby after her precious freak boyfriend was done”??
…
Wonderful goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely excellent. Thomas Sabo Bracelets making a sort of elegance and harmony http://phoenixsoul-ro.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=136993
My comment is not about these two.its about my children , they were molested by there grandfather. My father.he has done this before ,my sister,4 cousins possibly 3 others. There was an investegation,he had a lawyer. We heard nothing from anyone about the investegation until it was found unfounded . Meanwhile my two girls think they did something rong for speaking up. The evidence is there people have bin put away for a lot less. So u tell me how do I handle this situation?
Hope you can fix the typo’s above state Travis Alexander’s name as Trevor on at least 2 occasions. Thank you
The time has come to change the laws..