Ten years ago on 15 July 2002, a six-year-old
girl, Samantha Runion was murdered in Riverside County, California. In loving
memory of her, I will post information about her from Wikipedia and also
endorse the Joyful Child Foundation. I felt for her family, as the same way I
felt for Marc Klaas.
I thank God that
Proposition 34 was defeated, if not, the public will not be satisfied. One of
my beloved judges, the Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard once said in a speech
in the House of Lords on 28 April 1948:
“There is one other consideration which I believe should never be overlooked. If the criminal law of this country is to be respected, it must be in accordance with public opinion, and public opinion must support it. That goes very nearly to the root of this question of capital punishment. I cannot believe or the public opinion (or would I rather call it the public conscience) of this country will tolerate that persons who deliberately condemn others to painful and, it may be, lingering deaths should be allow to live…”
Samantha
Bree Runnion (July 26, 1996 – July 15, 2002) was an American murder
victim. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 26, 1996, and her family
was a resident of Stanton, California.
Kidnapping
and murder
Samantha
was kidnapped, sexually abused and strangled by a man who lured her from her
front yard by telling her he had lost his dog. Her naked body was found the
next day by a hiker in Cleveland National Forest, 50 miles southeast of Stanton.
The autopsy revealed that she died from compression. A sample of the
kidnapper's DNA was found under her fingernail.
The
suspect, a Lake Elsinore, California, man named Alejandro Avila, was convicted
of first degree murder with special circumstances in May 2005. His DNA was
found on Samantha's body, and her DNA was found in his car. He was arrested
three days after the abduction. Avila had previously been to the condominium
complex where Samantha lived, because his ex-girlfriend resided there and he
had been previously acquitted of molesting her daughter and niece. On May 16,
2005, the jury recommended he receive the death penalty. On July 22, 2005,
Avila was formally sentenced to death. He is incarcerated at San Quentin State
Prison on death row.
Joyful
Child Foundation
The
Joyful Child Foundation was established in her memory. The Joyful Child
Foundation—In Memory of Samantha Runnion (TJCF) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit
organization founded in 2002 after the abduction, molestation and murder of
five-year-old Samantha Runnion. TJCF is dedicated to raising awareness about
child sexual abuse and abduction while facilitating proactive community
organizing to give everyone an opportunity to participate in the national
movement to stop violent sexual crimes against children.
The Joyful
Child Foundation was established in 2002 by the Runnion family after the
sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Samantha Runnion in 2002. Its first
initiative was "Samantha's Pride" which aims to facilitate the
establishment of child watch programs in communities across the US. As at the
end of 2004, 51 programs had been established concentrated in the Orange
County, California area of southern California. The California Conservatory of
the Arts sponsored a group called the Kids Next Door who recorded a fundraising
Christmas album at the end of 2004 with funds going to the Joyful Child
Foundation.
In
addition to funding the "Samantha's Pride" initiative, the Joyful
Child Foundation will use donations to
- fund children's creative writing and artistic programs; and
- fund nonprofit organisations that seek to prevent child abuse and abduction; and
- research into predator behaviour and recidivism.
To learn more:
