Disclaimer

Disclaimer: I am providing the content on this blog solely for the reader's general information. This blog contains my personal commentary on issues that interest me. Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this blog are mine alone, and not the views of any law firm with which I am in any way associated or any other member of any such law firm. Nothing on this blog is intended to be a solicitation of, or the provision of, legal advice, nor to create an attorney-client relationship with me or any law firm. Please view my "Full Disclaimer" statement at the bottom of the page for additonal information..

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Colorado Teen Gets Life for Killing, Dismembering Girl; Defense Attempt at Leniency Fails Predictably



An 18-year old boy, who was seventeen at the time he kidnapped, methodically killed and dismembered a 10-year old girl that he grabbed on the way to school, was sentenced to life in prison.  Prosecutors and a psychologist described him as sadistic. 

His lawyers described him as “still a child himself” and stated that he might have had trauma before and during birth, had anxiety, a learning disability and an emotionally distant mother. As far as defenses go, that’s pretty weak.  Against the kidnapping, killing and dismembering of a ten year-old girl by a 17 year-old, the defense comes back with emotionally distant mother?  If that’s all they’ve got to use, or all they could come up with after actual legal thought and strategy, then their client really must have been psychotically evil, because that’s a pitiful defense.

And it didn’t work.  As reported by the Houston Chronicle (via theAP): Judge Stephen Munsinger rejected that image and the defense argument that Sigg should be eligible for parole in 40 years. He instead ordered the teen to serve a life sentence for killing Jessica Ridgeway plus 86 years for other offenses, including sexually assaulting her and trying to attack a jogger a few months before. The sentence ensured Sigg will never be released.


Jessica's disappearance last fall put the Denver suburbs on edge as police, aided by an army of volunteers, searched for her and then her killer. While people now know how Jessica was killed, Munsinger said they might never know why.

"Evil is apparently real," he said. "It was present in our community on Oct. 5, 2012. Its name was Austin Sigg."

The defendant didn’t testify during the sentencing.  The prosecution did address the defense’s testimony that the teenager’s mother huffed glue while pregnant and that he’d gotten counseling when 12 years old, in the most straightforward manner: "Even if true, whatever forces have made Austin Sigg who he is, he is broken," Sargent said. "The only way to protect the community from him is to keep him confined forever."

And therein lies the problem with most defendants’ strategy during the punishment phase of heinous crimes, be they capital crimes (death sentence) or serious non capital.  Many, many defendants try to get leniency by stating how messed up their childhoods were, so much so that they didn’t learn right from wrong and were so messed up by abuse or their parents’ drug use that they are depraved.  It usually doesn’t make the judge or jury feel sorry for them – or at least not as sorry for them as for the victim of their crimes – and does seriously make the jury or judge lock the person up.  If the defendant is so messed up that he is completely depraved, telling why it happened doesn’t change the fact that the defense attorney has just spent hours or days telling the judge that his client is depraved (no matter what the cause) and the judge or jury surely doesn’t want that person on the streets again.

No comments:

Post a Comment