She studied Bobbitt

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Here I go again, raking up old stuff.

I wish like everything that I could make some sort of contribution to Brigitte's "commissary account" in prison or something. If I knew her mailing address I would send her a card or letter or something.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/1

1/07/2009-11-07_despite_jurors_support_abused_killer_gets_515_y rs.html

A Queens judge Friday slapped Brigitte Harris with the toughest sentence possible for killing and dismembering her father to avenge years of sexual abuse.

Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman sentenced Harris to five to 15 years for the suffocation slaying of Eric Goodridge in her Rockaway apartment on July 28, 2007.

Harris admitted plotting to sever her father's penis with a scalpel by researching the case of Lorena and John Bobbitt. She wanted to prevent Goodridge, 55, from returning to his native Liberia with his granddaughters, she said.

"I never intended to kill him, and I'm sorry for his family's loss," she told Cooperman.

Cooperman acknowledged the findings of mental health professionals who agreed Goodridge repeatedly sexually abused his daughter from age 3, but he cautioned against victims taking the law into their own hands.

"Sometimes the crime itself warrants punishment," Cooperman said.

The judge also chided jurors for giving in to sympathies for Harris in reaching a second-degree manslaughter verdict that was inconsistent with the facts.

Four jurors attended Friday's sentencing and, in letters, urged Cooperman to set Harris free so she could seek psychiatric care. Harris attorney Arthur Aidala said were it not for the jury, Harris, 29, would probably be spending the rest of her life behind bars.

"They handcuffed the judge from committing an injustice," Aidala said.

"Brigitte has shown no remorse," countered Harris' aunt, Comfort Lawrence.

tzambito@nydailynews.com

If you do a web search on Brigitte, and read the history of this case, I think you may feel the judge went overboard with the sentencing here. Even the jurors felt that she should have been released.

[Hash (imported)]

Protect the penis, destroy the girl, that's the mantra of the judge. Men in our culture worship their penises and if anyone does anything to destroy it, off with their heads! The girl was innocent and traumatized for years. She was damaged emotionally and physically. Reminds me of the movie Sybil. When you're injured, when your subjected to abuse and suffer at the hands of those who should love you, your mind devises ways to cope. Once the damage is done, the mind never forgets, no matter how many years have passed. Vengence? Who's to say, however, when given the chance, you take matters into your hands because the "system" didn't help you. This girl was damaged and she did what she believed she had to do.

The same thing happens all the time, though few penises are removed. Last year a young boy blew away his father who had been attacking and beating up his mother continuously for years. The boy did what he believed was necessary to protect his mother, I don't fault him. I came from an abusive alcoholic family, my grandfather was a drunk and abused my grandmother and my mother for years. He died young from drinking, good ridden. I sympathize with the abused, not with the abuser. He suffered once, she suffered what? A thousand times?

[ramses (imported)]

I'm ok with throwing the book at her. Why? Vigilante justice is not something that can be tolerated in our society. It opens up a defense of "they had it coming". I don't want ANYONE playing judge, jury and executioner. Everyone readding the story just ASSUMES that everything she said was accurate and true and they have convicted the father in absentia for the "alleged " crimes.

Her father could not defend himself from the allegations in court because he died at her hands. If she cut his penis off when he was trying to get in bed with her when she was younger, I would just laugh my ass off and call it self defense.

There are ALWAYS many sides to ANY story and no matter how bad one persons story is (talk to anyone getting a divorce) there is always an interesting "other side" of that story and it always seems so different!