The document stares at me from my computer screen. I’ve been looking at it for the past hour - looking but not acting. The monitor’s fallen asleep a dozen times or more. At last I find the courage to place my fingers on the keyboard, but I don’t know what to choose. This is so hard!
With my eyes closed, I take a deep breath. Maybe it will clear my mind, so I can think. I need to think with a right heart. I need an escape from the anger that’s gripped my heart. It doesn’t want me to do the right thing. It doesn’t want me to act with compassion. It wants me to take revenge. It wants me to make my choice based on the direction it’s pulling me. But that’s not what my God would do. No, my God wants me to have compassion. He wants me to forgive. You want the impossible, God!
The life of a 16-year-old boy rests in my hands. He’s been convicted by a jury of his peers. All that remains is the sentencing phase – that piece of promised legislature – the change that now leaves sentencing – not up to a judge but up to the victim’s family.
I am the family.
What will I choose for him? Life in prison? Execution? Something worse?
This 16-year-old boy isn’t just any boy. That’s what makes this so hard. This convicted killer grew up as the kid next door. He ate at our table more than he did at his own. He was a part of our family.
Family… that sounds so empty, so hollow now. It’s a family that no longer exists because of him. Why did he rape and murder my daughter? She was all I had. She was my family. Why?
Now it’s up to me to determine this boy’s fate. Is there anything worse than death? Perhaps a life sentence where the evil in me hopes he’ll endure exactly what he did to my child? Go to prison! I hope you’re raped repeatedly! I hope you’re held down against your will! I hope you experience every kind of unimaginable pain! I hope they beat you senseless. I hope you spend every moment looking over your shoulder wondering when will they tire of you and kill you!
No, I can't. Prison is too good for him. He needs something worse – something he can never escape. I know exactly I’m going to do. I know what’s worse.
I’ll set him free.
YOU ARE READING
False Conviction
Teen FictionSociety… It had become so corrupt that change was needed. The government made small changes at first with the promised legislature that larger ones would follow. They did. Now things are worse.
