19 years ago on this day (1 October 1993), a young and beautiful girl, Polly Klaas was murdered in Petaluma, California. Please read this post from Wikipedia, before I give my thoughts and also endorsing The KlaasKids Foundation and encouragement to vote No to Proposition 34.
Polly Hannah Klaas (January 3, 1981 – October
1, 1993) is an American murder victim whose case gained national attention. At
the age of twelve, she was kidnapped at knife point from her mother's home
during a slumber party in Petaluma, California, on October 1, 1993. She
was later strangled. Richard Allen Davis was convicted of her murder in 1996
and sentenced to death.
Background:
On October 1, 1993, Klaas invited two
friends for a sleepover. Around 10:30 p.m., she opened her bedroom door to
fetch sleeping bags, when she saw a man with a knife. He tied the girls up,
told Klaas's friends to count to 1,000, and then kidnapped Klaas. Over the next
two months, about 4,000 people helped search for her. TV shows such as 20/20
and America's Most Wanted covered the kidnapping.
At the time, Davis was a wanted man:
the California Highway Patrol had issued an all points bulletin for a violation
of parole for a previous crime; any police officer who encountered him would
arrest him on that charge. (The bulletin was broadcast on the CHP channel,
which only CHP radios could receive. CHP practice changed after the case; such
bulletins are now broadcast on all police channels.)
During the search, police officers
encountered Davis in a nearby rural area, where his Ford Pinto was stuck in the
mud. Unaware of the APB, the local police released him after calling his
driver's license number in to their dispatcher (which only traced his driving
record, but not his criminal record). It is believed that he promptly drove to
an isolated spot, killed Polly, and buried her in a shallow grave.
On November 30, police arrested Davis
for violation of parole during routine patrol and the arresting officer
recognized him from police sketches. As his palm print had been found in
Klaas's bedroom, he was charged with the crime. Four days later, he led police
to Polly's body near Cloverdale. Davis said that he strangled her from behind
with a piece of cloth. Although there was no method to scientifically validate
this statement, as the body had decayed for two months, it was consistent with
the evidence.
Conviction:
Richard Allen Davis was tried and
convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and four special circumstances
(robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and a lewd act on a child) of Polly Klaas. A
San Jose Superior Court jury recommended the death sentence for Davis on August
5, 1996. At his formal sentencing by a judge, Davis provoked national outrage
by taunting his victim's family. He is currently on death row at San Quentin
State Prison, in Marin County, California.
Winona Ryder:
Actress Winona Ryder, who had been
raised in Petaluma, offered a $200,000 reward for Polly's safe return during
the search. After Polly's death, Ryder starred in a film version of Little
Women and dedicated it to Klaas's memory, since the novel had been Polly's
favorite book.
Aftermath and legacy:
Polly Klaas's body was cremated and
her ashes spread over the Pacific Ocean by her family.
In the wake of the murder, Polly's
father, Marc Klaas, became a child advocate and established the KlaasKids
Foundation. He has made himself available to parents of kidnapped children, and
has appeared frequently on Larry King Live, CNN Headline News,
and Nancy Grace.
Five years after Polly Klaas's murder,
a performing arts center was named in her honor in Petaluma.
The story of Polly Klaas's kidnapping
and the manhunt for Richard Allen Davis was depicted in episode 1, season 1 of The
FBI Files documentary show, titled "Polly Klaas: Kidnapped" (which
premiered October 20, 1998).
In the wake of the murder, politicians
in California and other U.S. states supported three strikes laws, and
California's Three Strikes act was signed into law on March 8, 1994.
In 2004, Klaas's paternal grandfather,
writer Joe Klaas (who, coincidentally, was best known for having co-authored a
book about missing aviator Amelia Earhart) endorsed California Proposition 66
to "fix the flaw in the [Three Strikes] law". His son, Marc, opposed
the law.
MY
THOUGHTS:
I walked in the shoes of Marc Klaas
and I just cannot wait for Richard Allen Davis to die. I believe that the following
people: Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Alex Kozinski, Chalerm Ubumrung, Lech Aleksander Kaczyński, Lynne Abraham, , Tariq A. Al Maeena, Joseph de Maistre, Professor Robert Blecker,
Saqib Ali and Nouri al-Maliki cannot wait too.
As California’s death
penalty system has been a joke, all thanks to the Abolitionists in that State. Davis has been repeatedly fantasizing about Polly every single day and those
Abolitionists do not care at all. I wish that the State can be at least like
Dubai who executed the child killer less than even one and a half year after the murder.
Polly Klaas was so young and her
life had ended, while Davis has lived longer than her. She did not do anything
wrong to deserve to be murdered. I give my full condolences to the Klaas Family.
I urged everybody to donate money to the KlaasKids Foundation to learn more
about protecting your children from pedophiles. I also urge everybody in
California to vote No to Proposition 34, unless you want to see that scumbag,
Richard Allen Davis live. Just the opposite, I cannot wait for him to die. May
Polly Klaas R.I.P!
The arguments in support of Pro. 34, the ballot measure to abolish the death penalty, are exaggerated at best and, in most cases, misleading and false.
ReplyDeleteNo “savings.” Alleged savings ignore increased life-time medical costs for aging inmates and require decreased security levels and housing 2-3 inmates per cell rather than one. Rather than spending 23 hours/day in their cell, inmates will be required to work. These changes will lead to increased violence for other inmates and guards and prove unworkable for these killers.
No “accountability.” Max earnings for any inmate would amount to $383/year (assuming 100% of earnings went to victims), divided by number of qualifying victims. Hardly accounts for murdering a loved one.
No “full enforcement” as 729 inmates do not receive penalty given them by jurors. Also, for the 34,000 inmates serving life sentences, there will be NO increased penalty for killing a guard or another inmate. They’re already serving a life sentence.
Liberals are also trying to get rid of life sentences. (Human Rights Watch, Old Behind Bars, 2012.) This would lead to possible paroles for not only the 729 on death row, but the 34,000 others serving life sentences. On 9/30/12, Brown passed the first step, signing a bill to allow 309 inmates with life sentences for murder to be paroled after serving as little as 15 years. Life without parole is meaningless. Remember Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan. Convicted killers get out and kill again, such as Darryl Thomas Kemp, Kenneth Allen McDuff, and Bennie Demps.
Arguments of innocence bogus. Can’t identify one innocent person executed in CA. Can’t
identify one person on CA’s death row who has exhausted his appeals and has a plausible claim of innocence. See http://cadeathpenalty.webs.com/
Chris Bernstein, I was formerly an opponent of the death penalty but became a supporter. You should follow my other blog http://wwwiloveccp-thepunisher2008.blogspot.com.au/ and also I found this website useful. http://prodpquotes.info/prodp/default/index
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