Min Chen, the man who kidnapped little Cecilia Zhang, then murdered her, was sentenced to "life in prison with no possibility of parole for 15 years".
This being Canada, the above translates to fifteen years. Actually less than that, since he's served 22 months already, the poor baby. He'd be 36 when he gets out.
Chen pled guilty, which the judge cited as a "mitigating" factor. How exactly is an admission of guilt a mitigating factor, anyway? What, we reward the guy for not lying about the murder he committed?
For that matter, how was he allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder? He killed Cecilia during the commission of another crime, kidnapping with intent to extort. That's first degree murder, according to our Criminal Code. But he didn't mean to kill her, see. He just meant to keep her from screaming while he held her captive in the trunk of his car until he got the ransom money. Trunks being what they are--a place for cargo, not human beings--Cecilia almost certainly would have died even without a towel stuffed in her mouth. But no, Chen's crime wasn't premeditated. Whose word do we have for that? Chen's, of course. There were no other witnesses to the murder except Cecilia, and oops! she's dead, so...
If I sound flippant, I really don't mean to. This is merely the latest example of our "justice" system gone mad. It's been a long time since I could agree with any sentence handed down by any court to any guilty defendant in this country. You know what's really sad? I actually expected Chen to serve ten years--the minimum. Or for him to plead it down to manslaughter and get off with three years of house arrest.
The monstrous irony is that Chen's stated motive for kidnapping Cecilia in the first place was to hold her for ransom. And what was he going to do with the $25,000 ransom? Why, pay for an arranged marriage so he could stay in Canada. Now, he'll be in Canada for fifteen years, without a pesky wife of convenience, and supported by the Canadian taxpayer. (By the way, Mr. Chen, a marriage license can be had for $100.00--what was the other $24,900.00 for, again?)
If there's anything positive about this story, it's that Chen will likely be deported at the conclusion of his sentence...to China, where they understand how to deal with murderers. But I have to ask, why wait? It will cost Canadians more than a million dollars to house this lowlife for the next decade and a half. We could ship him off to China in the cargo hold of the next 747 heading that way. We could even stuff a towel in his mouth, you know, for that certain symmetry.
Or I could buy some rope...
2 comments:
You know, I'm generally not a bloodthirsty person, but when it comes to killing a child, I would ABSOLUTELY send them to their deaths... OK, OK, when you think about it, it's so... final, what if it was the wrong person, it's too much like the Biblical "eye for an eye" thing which we should be moving away from as civilized human beings, but when it's a child... I just find it unforgivable.
I agree with you--"an eye for an eye" is spiritually juvenile...and I suppose some of these people can be rehabilitated...and the thing to do with mistakes, even big ones, is to correct them, not punish them...and blah blah bl-blah blah blah.
I wonder how, exactly, I would frame that if I was going to tell it to Cecilia's family...
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