Remember Shirley? Surely You Jest!
By A.M. Siriano (03/04/05)
Who is the chief concern of the American justice system, the criminal or the victim? To answer that, take the case of Christopher Simmons, a 17-year-old stoner who, with the help of friends, savagely beat, kidnapped, and murdered 46-year-old Shirley Ann Crook by tying her up with wire and shoving her off a high bridge into Missouri’s Meramec River.
Now run a search—use Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, it doesn’t matter—for images of the two. You are sure to find photos of a smirking Simmons in abundance; but good luck if you want to know what his victim looked like. Maybe I’m just not good at navigating the web, because I found only a copy of an invitation to her funeral. If you want to know about how the two lived their lives, you will find plenty of sob stories about Simmons, but little word on the life of Miss Shirley.
We certainly know how she died. If you can stomach it, you can read graphic accounts of her death on the internet. If you want the sympathy-for-the-devil version, go to Amnesty International, where you will find arguments that the prosecution’s pursuit of the death penalty for the perpetrator “violated international law” and that the execution of Simmons “would represent an appalling memorial to Shirley Crook.”
March 1, 2005, was another win for the criminal class, because the U.S. Supreme Court sided with international sentiment instead of old-school American justice. Not surprisingly, those who said nay to the death penalty for juveniles, no matter the nature of the crime, were the liberals on the Court, who beat down the dissenting conservatives, five to four. Amnesty International and the whole “progressive” community—along with our growing brood of murderous juveniles—were happy as clams on that day. For a glimpse of the liberal mindset on this issue, read the editorials of America’s newspapers and you will find mostly praise for the Court’s “move away from barbarism.” What you won’t find is a concern for Shirley Crook or revulsion at the barbaric act that took her life. In most cases, you won’t find her mentioned at all.
Christopher Simmons, now 28, is cheering the decision, of course, and he is “eternally grateful” for being allowed to live—safe on the inside, room and board for life, paltry as it may be, but at least far from high bridges and rushing rivers. Simmons was “praying fervently” for this, so no wonder the Supreme Court ruled as it did! “I think he sees some of God’s work in this result,” said his servant-of-the-living-God attorney Pat Berrigan. You see, Simmons is a Christian now, and as we’ve found out time and again, this makes everything all better ...
Except for the family of Shirley Crook. They are left with only memories, which have been tainted by the horrid images of their beloved wife and mother plummeting from a railroad trestle into the Meramec.
But at least Simmons gets to live on, thus gracing us with his saintly presence at the expense of American tax dollars. For every dollar you make, a small part of it goes to keeping this monster well fed. He’ll have more interviews to do, and his happy mug will appear on television, in magazines, and all over the internet. Before too long a movie will be made, perhaps after he has written a book about his “ordeal.”
Meanwhile, the only real memorials to Shirley Crook will be hidden from public view on the walls and mantels of family members in Missouri. Maybe someday America will be more concerned about the victim instead of the criminal, and then we just might get a glimpse of what she looked like, and even hear about how she lived her life. And maybe someday pigs will fly.
http://christopherorlet.blogspot.com/2004_10_23_christopherorlet_archive.html
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510632002
(Printer friendly version) Email: A.M. Siriano
