The tribulations of Trials… 3

This process of a Trial and Sentencing is a long and hard, drawn out thing.  We read about trials, verdicts, and the sentence that is given.  But experiencing all this inside the courtroom is an entirely different thing.

When I first sat in on Sam Vanettes Murder Trial, I was surprised to see that his Murderer, Dayle Long, was being defended by the same defense attorney our Murderer, William Gary Simpson, is being defended by.  It gave me first hand insight as to how this defense attorney handles Victim’s and witness’s on the stand.  How he poses questions and to what lengths of cruelty he may go in order to favorably show the Murderer, or to get the Murderer a lesser sentence.  It IS his job, after all, defending the guilty.  And if there are ever to BE trials, someone has to do the dirty work.

Today Dayle Long received his sentence for the Murder of Sam Vanettes.  When I read in the Patch yesterday that the sentencing was today, I discussed it with Kes and we both decided to go.  We needed to see for ourselves, in preparation for our upcoming Trial, how the process works and hear how others have prepared their impact statements.

When we arrived this morning, we waited outside the door.  Sam’s family is large, and many friends were present.  We weren’t sure there would be room for us to sit on Sam’s side in the courtroom, and we wanted to wait until they were all seated.  Kes and I had discussed the ‘what ifs’ this morning, and I told her that if Sam’s side was filled we may have to sit ‘on the other side’.  Kes, being 15, said she’d rather stand in the back of the room than sit on the Murderer’s side.  I explained to her we all must be seated in the courtroom, and if there was no room on either side we would not get to sit in at all.  But there was just enough room at the back for Kes and I to sit in on Sam’s side.

One by one, his family members and friends got up to read their impact statements.  The voids, the emptiness, the enormous despair in their lives.  His mother, tortured and tormented like myself.  His sister who was with him that night, living with her Victim’s guilt for not being with Sam in his last moments or being able to save Sam, like all of us here live with this same guilt for our Saskia.  I learned that Sam went to Law school and got his degree, but chose not to pursue the law profession.  He was a mechanical genius, and in hearing the story from his best friend how Sam fixed his fathers computer and left a funny message on the screen, I also learned that Sam had quite a humorous side.  Sam had his pilot’s license and flew a small plane.  He was such a loving and great brother, and it was heartbreaking to hear his niece Thumper speak of Sam as her idol, the man she looked up to and looked to for advice.  I thought of Kes, sitting next to me, and how this was her relationship with Saskia.  When the wonderful words of who Sam was were ended, we watched a video – the pictures of Sam in his LIFE…  My tears wouldn’t stop, as each picture of Sam, ALIVE, came up on the screen.  For I know, pictures are now all that is left of Sam too. 

Only two people spoke in defense of Mr. Long.  His aunt, who spoke of him being such a good man.  And a friend, who tried to explain that Mr. Long’s ‘apparent’ lack of empathy in taking Sam’s life was somehow ‘part of the police officer mentality’, and not a true lack of empathy.  He said police officers take a life only when they deem it necessary, and so they don’t regret it.   That’s why Mr. Long said that if he had to do it all over again, he would…  My own dealings with the Police have given me great insight into this ‘mentality’.  I’ve been a good woman, I’ve never broken the law.  Yet, in every encounter with them they have wrong me, lied to me, hurt me, flat out did not do their job - and never once offered an apology.  I see the ‘mentality’ this man spoke of as more, the police will never offer an apology because they will never admit the truth that they’ve done something wrong.  And with this omission of the truth, they will never offer an apology for any reason…

Mr. Long himself did not speak, ‘upon advise from council’.  Then it was time for his defense lawyer to try some tactics.  Requesting, that the Judge himself overturn the jury’s verdict and give a lesser sentence to Mr. Long for Murder…  Such a sickening tactic, and so cruel to Sam’s family, as it left them gasping and panicked.  By law, the judge cannot do this.  Even if he could, he said, he saw through the lies and deceit from Mr. Long, and would still issue the same sentence.

40 YEARS.  Not quite the words ‘Life Sentence’ we were all hoping to hear.  But hopefully, if will be all of Mr. Longs’ life.