PLEA BARGAIN, BERNARDO/HOMOLKA???? BLOG # 2148; FRI AUG-03,2018

THE MESSAGE:

The vast majority of people in North America mistrust politicians, yet they trust the criminal justice system and value the dedication of law enforcement officials. But they do so, perhaps, in ignorance; as much as anything else, the justice system is driven by money and politics and egos.

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN FORGIVENESS IS DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE!

Marion Boyd, a non-lawyer, was promoted to the position of Attorney General of Ontario on February 3, 1993 by the NDP government. She approved a plea-bargain deal that allowed serial killer Karla Homolka to receive a relatively light 12 year prison sentence for manslaughter in return for testimony which led to the conviction of her then husband Paul Bernardo. 

This deal was widely criticized  and many questioned Boyd's judgement in the matter. Christie Blatchford, who followed the Bernardo trial, believed that Boyd was on a self appointed campaign to educate the world about 'battered women'. As such she was ideologically predisposed to accept Karla as a victim.  Popular opinion held that Boyd should have challenged the plea agreement upon the later discovery of  video tape evidence showing Karla Homolka's direct involvement in the death of her sister, Tammy and her role in the other murders. No action was taken by the Attorney General to vacate the plea-bargain.

Karla Homolka testified against Paul Bernardo at his murder trial. In return she was given a 12 year reduced sentence in a plea bargain criticized by many Canadians. Homolka, is now living in Chateauguay, Quebec, with her three children. She is going under the name of Leanne Teale. Two of her children are attending a local public school.

LAWYERS AND ONE BIG CLUSTER F**K.

Bernardo's first defence lawyer, Ken Murray, withheld videotapes for 17 months that were considered crucial evidence against the couple. Prosecutors said that they would never have agreed to Homolka's plea bargain if they had seen the tapes. 

Murray was charged for withholding the videotapes showing the rape and torture of Bernardo's victims but was later acquitted of obstruction of justice. In November 2000, six months after Murray‟s criminal acquittal, the Law Society of Upper Canada dropped the professional misconduct charges against him

THE BLURB:

Paul Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of killing teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. 

 











His ex-wife, Karla Homolka, claimed Bernardo had  forced her to participate in the sex-killings. 

"TILL DEATH .........." WHY NOT? 

Ken Murray found sex video tapes on May 07, 1993. He had been being told of their location by Bernardo. After viewing their content, instead of turning them over to the police, Murray formulated a plan to use the tapes to counter Homolka when she testified at Bernardo's trial. They would have shown her to be a liar and discredited her as the main witness. Murray's plan  clearly obstructed justice. 

The lawyer  has spent many years in social purgatory for hiding the videotapes showing the rape and torture of the two teenage girls. He told of his lonely agony as he watched the tapes in horror and came to believe it was Karla Homolka and not Paul Bernardo who killed the victims. 

Murray said he was appalled by the look of "feral joy" on Homolka's face as she actively engaged in the molestation and torture. 

He described her appearance  as corrosive and horrific and declared that  her ability to prey on victims quickly earned Homolka the nickname "the black widow" among the Bernardo defence team.

Bernardo was charged with the murders on May 18, 1993, three weeks after a police search failed to turn up the videotapes and shortly after Ms. Homolka accepted the plea bargain and agreed to testify against her former husband.

Murray relayed Bernardo's position that the tapes showed him at an all-time low, and that he was guilty of most of the offences. Bernardo told Murray, "I'm probably going to jail for the rest of my life, but I did not kill those girls." His position was that Karla should have been charged along with him. She was the killer, in the true sense. Bernardo did all the stuff that was recorded, but he didn't commit the ultimate act. Recently, Bernardo has applied for 'day parole' in Toronto. SERIOUSLY?

Murray said other videotapes showed Ms. Homolka to be a self-confident, happily married woman who loved her husband as much as she loved being sexually serviced by female hookers or masturbating for the videocamera. "I saw somebody who could be shown as a complete liar. This wasn't a lady who had been subjugated. She was happy, compliant, suggestive and willing. In my view, the tapes showed Karla as being often the initiator; often the person in control. Nothing on the tapes struck me that she was being dominated or coerced. In fact, there were times that Mr. Bernardo's actions appeared to be scripted and it was she who was holding the camera."

"We would have had solid evidence, under oath, of her lies," Mr. Murray said. "It all went up in smoke. We never got a chance to set her up."

Apparently news of the tapes was under a publication ban in Canada; however, it was circulated in Buffalo and upper NY State in the USA. No action was taken against Homolka by the Bernardo prosecutors.

THE QUESTION:

Why was the plea bargain deal for Homolka not voided after the prosecutors saw the tapes that proved her to be a 'liar'?

THE QUOTE:

“What I did then was terrible, and I was in a situation where I was unable to see clearly, where I was unable to ask for help, where I was completely overwhelmed in my life,” Karla Homolka.

THE LEMON:

Awarded to lawyer Ken Murray for not turning the video evidence over to the prosecution and allowing them to send Homolka to prison for life as justice demanded!

THE CLIP: