Sunday, November 05, 2006

Why was Charles Davis, Jr. on parole

It infuriates me that the press and public can go bonkers over consentual gay sex (if the story is about a Republican or a pastor) but virtually ignore the horrific crimes against women and girls (that don't happen in Aruba or California). This week in the Columbus papers it was reported that Charles S. Davis,Jr. "could get" 89.5 years for raping and terrorizing a teen age girl he kidnapped on her way to a high school game. But he was on parole for a similar crime committed in 1997! Who are the judges, lawyers and members of the parole board who let this creep out to do the same crime again? Why aren't those legal nitwits being investigated on national TV?

"Davis was on parole for the 1997 rape of a Columbus teenager when he abducted a 15-year-old Columbus girl in January and raped her repeatedly in the basement of an apartment complex on Chesterfield Court.

He cut the girl with a broken bottle but begged her to be his girlfriend, prosecutors said. The rape followed the same pattern as the 1997 attack.

Davis was sentenced to seven years in prison for that crime. After he was released in 2004, he was in and out of jail for failing to live where he was registered, on Bay Run Drive on the West Side." [Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 1]

And then there's the unhappy husband from Columbus, Mike Henslee, who lied about his wife's disappearance (reported by her family, not him) and finally admitted he killed her and led authorities to her body this week in Dayton, about 100 miles away. But he got his 10 minutes of fame in a public press conference where he accused her of being unfaithful and said he had an "anger management problem." Her friends said she was the classic battered wife. She had filed for protection against him in August. The violence against her increased when she decided to go back to college, according to her family. "The charges against [Harry Michael "Mike"] Henslee carry a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life." Whoopee--15 years for terrorizing her for years, murdering her, and hiding the body in Dayton. [ONN story via Dispatch, and we'll probably never hear of it again] Also reported at a Domestic Violence blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Part of the answer is of course the people we elect, but more than that, I would say that it is our own ignorance. We seem to not be able to see though the psychopaths we put in charge? If this is not the case, then why do we continue along the same path? Why is your example repeated over and over again across the land?
I am outraged as well.
Great post Norma.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your thoughts about the murder of my sister Susan. I can not tell you how hard it is that he had 15 minutes of his "fame", to defame my sister. She was a kind, loving, studious person, who always had time for you. To think he may get anything lesser than life in prison, is sickening.

Thanks again,

Brian Little