When The Scales Are Even Justice Is Served

Today is the third anniversary of one of the most horrendous crimes that has happened in recent memory in our fair community. Joseph Duncan came to town. He killed a mother, her male friend and her son. He kidnapped two younger children from the same family and ultimately killed one of them. For some reason he came back to town with the young girl, stopped at the local Denny's, was recognized and arrested.

The case is now in the sentencing stage in Federal court. Delay after delay. The holdup? His mental competency. Those scales of justice aren't quite even yet.

There is better news in another small town. This is the case of a MySpace account being set up for a phantom person with the sole intent of harassing a young girl suffering from low self esteem. With the enticement of a "boyfriend", messages soon turned cruel and when one finally stated the world would be better off without her, the girl committed suicide.

The upshot of this case is that an adult woman helped in the creation of the account and the scheme. The last I had read about the case, there would be no prosecution because there was no way of directly tying the actions on MySpace to the suicide. That was on the state level. The Feds had a whole different perspective.

Today an AP story says the woman has been indicted.

Public outrage helped by cooperation from MySpace has struck a blow to cyber bullying and cheers to the U.S. attorney who pursued it.

A thirteen year old girl on medication for ADD and depression killed herself. An adult helped perpetrate the hoax that caused it.

Be careful out there. You never know who is on the other keyboard. Remember Joseph Duncan had a blog too!