Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Vegetate to Close at the End of the Month
D.C. Police Seek Suspect in Series of Bank Robberies
Suspect in 9-Year-Old's Murder Found Dead in D.C. Jail
Wizards Owner Abe Pollin Dies at 85
Breaking news from the Washington Post:
Banita Jacks (Associated Press)
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Wednesday found Banita Jacks guilty of killing her four daughters in a case that shook the region for its cruelty.The verdict comes after one of the most heartbreaking and disturbing crimes to have rocked the District in the last decade. The decomposed bodies of Jacks's four daughters were discovered inside their Southeast rowhouse on Jan. 9, 2008, when federal marshals went to the home to serve an eviction notice. The deaths of Brittany Jacks, 16, Tatianna Jacks, 11, N'Kiah Fogle, 6, and Aja Fogle, 5, brought about a massive investigation and reorganization of the city's Child and Family Services Agency, which failed to take action to help the girls before it was too late.Judge Frederick H. Weisberg convicted Jacks on four counts of felony murder in the girls' deaths. Weisberg also found Jacks guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the deaths of the three youngest girls, but acquitted her on the premeditated murder of her oldest daughter. She also was found guilty on lesser charges, including child cruelty. She likely will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Sentencing for Banita Jacks will take place later this fall.
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A very chilling story.
It's about freakin' time.
Have fun in prison...
Any idea why she was acquitted in the murder of her oldest daughter?
"Judge Frederick H. Weisberg convicted Jacks on four counts of felony murder in the girls' deaths." Looks like she was convicted of the murder, just not premeditated. However, I'm not sure if "premeditated" murder is a separate charge altogether or just a special circumstance of the felony murder.
Thanks. I managed to figure it out after I slowed down and read the words in the sentence. Ask questions first, read article later.
She was aquited of 1st Degree (premeditated) murder...it probably ended up being 2nd Degree. If I remember correctly she held off on killing the oldest child and only did so when the kid reacted to the killings of the first three. Say what you will but it could be seen as a panic reaction to what she had already done (you know...keep her quiet). Three first degree convictions is more than enough to keep her in for life. Agree with it or disagree with it but had she committed the crime in Virginia as opposed to DC, she'd have a pretty quick trip to the lethal injection table. There might be an appeal but no self serving judge would eeeeever overturn this one.
While I disagree vehemently with the death penalty, this is just one of those cases that pushes one to the edge of their own convictions. Does you think there would have been a strong anti-death-penalty response had this in fact been in VA?
I really should check my edited sentences before I send out anymore comments with "Does you..." in them...
I don't think there would have been a strong protest against this one. Two rules in states that have the legal ability to kill you: 1. Don't kill law enforcement officers and 2. You don't kill kids. Those two, the latter having to be premeditated) will pretty much ensure that the public won't bat an eye at your passing. Beyond that, its a crap shoot, I'd say the odds are 50-50 they even try for a 1st Degree Murder case.
i am all for anti-death penalty in this case. why put her out of her misery? why not make her live every single day thinking of those poor kids she killed. i sure as hell would want her to live a long life in prison racked with guilt over what she did. not frying in a chair. i will be happy to put my tax dollars towards this monster if it means she is being punished ALIVE.
Yep, dodgecitydave has it - she is guilty of four murders, but only three were considered premeditated by the Judge.
Wonder how long till the appeal comes down. Seems like life in prison might be more fun than life in the loony bin, though...
Was there really a substantive change at the Child and Family Services Agency?
Not until the upcoming (yet to be filed) civil suit comes...
"hell yea banita jacks is going to jail" party at my house!
Why on earth would there be any sort of celebrating in this case. Yes, she got the punishment she has had coming to her. But this is one of the sadder cases I have ever heard of.
No one won here.
i think it was just a joke.
like, there probably is not really a party at the person's house. he or she was probably not being serious about having the party.
clearly it was joke, come the F on. i am not having a party at my house. i am celebrating the fact that this asshole will sit in a prison cell and live out the rest of her life behind bars.
You're NOT having a party?
What am I going to do with the "hell yea banita jacks is going to jail" ice cream cake I had specially made from Carvel's?
Does Carvel do Molly the dog cakes? I've heard of Fudgie the Whale.
There's also Cookie Puss and Cookie O'Puss for St. Patrick's Day, neither of which would be appropriate for celebrating an infanticidal mother going to jail unless she's either Irish, a cat enthusiast, or both.
I bet Whole Foods does a Molly cake. Its just a WF cake box and a leash. Or a crazy woman.
I suppose you could cross out "Banita Jacks," replace it with "Sinclair Skinner," and hope for the best.
i lied, the party joke was totally not a joke and that shit is back on now that the carvel cake is in the mix!!
who is bringing the frozen reeses and banita pinata full of little bottles of booze?
btw lets send her this cake in jail
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wGr8njEWjtI/SmPgLdNHFUI/AAAAAAAADtk/VkeOKcbZF4g/s400/Katy+N+.+ow+.+homage+2..jpg
I want that at MY birthday party. but it's gotta be ice cream with cookie crumbles in the middle.
is there any other type of cake to have at a bday party?!
I'm glad the judge ruled the way he did.
I'm glad I won't have to look at that depressing mug shot ever again.
Until she gets knocked up by a prison guard, that is.
I guess I hope she spends the rest of her time under competent psychiatric care, as well as under lock and key.
She'll get counseling, but not much else in the big house. She refused to go for the insanity defense which would've gotten her actual psychiatric care, although her lawyers recently planted a seed right before the verdict that might help with an appeal to render her incompetent without asserting it herself.
It's a longshot though and I often wonder what good it is to rehabilitate someone just so they can understand in reality's terms how awful a human being they were.
Right. Now that things are where they are, is it kinder to end her life, help her regain sanity, or leave her delusional.
I have to think the delusions which drove her to kill her own children must be worse than anything anyone else could do to her.
Bioethics is such a quagmire. Shove me in the shallow water.
Truth be told, I'd rather have my tax dollars go for the short-term investment of lethal injection. Then apply what the cost of a life sentence would have been for an overhaul of social services.