On Tues., Jan. 29, the Boulder Daily Camera updated their report to include this comment from a juror who was involved in the decision to indict the victim's parents, and it reveals a disturbing desire to inflict cruel and unusual punishment for parents who were later exonerated.
"We didn't know who did what, but we felt the adults in the house may have done something that they certainly could have prevented, or they could have helped her, but they didn't."
Former FBI Profiler John Douglas, along with the most experienced homicide investigator who had worked on the case, Lou Smit, both believed that their years of experience and familiarity with the case details showed that neither Patsy nor John Ramsey were guilty of this crime or being at fault for not stopping it.
"They're barking up the wrong tree," Douglas said in 2006 about Boulder police in an NBC News Dateline interview about the investigation. And in the same interview, Lou Smit was quoted as saying that "There's evidence of somebody else doing this, and it's credible evidence."
In addition, FOX8.com pointed out on Jan. 28, 2013, that the then-District Attorney Mary Lacy exonerated both parents in 2008, after DNA testing revealed that neither of their DNA matched that of the perpetrator in the case.
Miscarriage of justice?
In other words, if the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury had been given the ability to influence Alex Hunter, the prosecutor at the time, then a miscarriage of justice would have occurred twice in this case.
The first miscarriage of justice would have been that the victim would not have received justice because her real killer would have walked free after her parents were targeted. And second, the victim's family would have been re-victimized all over again.This time by the judicial system that was supposed to give them justice for their loved one's death.
No wonder the family sought refuge away from Boulder, Colo. and returned to Atlanta, Ga. during the course of the investigation. And it is no wonder that they buried JonBenet in a cemetery in Marietta, Ga. either, as who can blame them from seeking a more supportive and familiar place after the tragic death of their loved one?
Case evidence didn't support bringing charges against the Ramseys in Alex Hunter's opinion back then. And Lou Smit said the evidence didn't support the Ramsey's being charged then either. And John Douglas, one of the most celebrated FBI criminal profilers in the country even said that it was his opinion that neither parent committed the crime in his book The Cases That Haunt Us. And he interviewed both extensively.
JonBenet Ramsey grand jury decision results
What the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury decision does now is highlight the terrible injustice that can occur to a victim's family after they've already suffered a fate worse than death: they can be blamed for the murder of their child, or at least be faulted for not stopping it from happening.
Should a grand jury be able to level that kind of re-victimization on the Ramsey family or anyone else now? And if the opinions of some of the best minds in the criminal-catching business are looked over in favor of some temporary grand jurors, what does that say about our legal system?
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