Something Is Amiss With Texas Justice

There are two stories in the Thursday Chronicle that illustrate how truly messed up our criminal justice system can be.  "Online DUI confession first, prison now" (Page A2), tells the story of an Ohio man who killed another man while driving drunk, promptly admitted his guilt in an Internet video, apologized, and provided all the testimony necessary to ensure his conviction. 

 

"Black widow's 1985 web of lies unravels" (Page A1) tells the story of a Houston woman who shot her invalid husband dead in his sleep after taking out an insurance policy a few months earlier, who then proceeded to concoct a fantastic and implausible story involving a third party who allegedly raped her and murdered her husband, but not before she was able to wrest the gun from the escaping man and fire it at him.  She kept that lie alive for 28 years, largely due to the inattention of the HPD, for whom she worked.  She provided no details as to her guilt, and never apologized.

 

The relative punishment for each of them is also bizarre: The Ohio drunk driver Matthew Cordle will do 6.5 years in prison and lose his driving privileges for life, along with having a felony conviction on his record.  By comparison, for murdering her 7th husband in cold blood, Carolyn Sue Krizan-Wilson of Houston will do only six months in jail, and will have the conviction expunged if she completes her probation period.  Oh yeah, and she gets to start her sentence after the Christmas holiday.  Her prosecution and punishment is reminiscent of that of Texas multimillionaire Robert Durst, who in 2000 beat an old man to death in Galveston, cut his body into pieces and threw them into Galveston Bay.  With suspicion for two other murders already hanging over his head, when Durst was eventually tried, he claimed self-defense despite no evidence to support him, was convicted only for evidence tampering and eventually served three years. 

 

Stories of lackadaisical prosecutions and nonsensical sentences for heinous crimes are far too frequently in the news.  I just wish so many of them didn't originate in the great state of Texas. 

 

Pete Smith

Cypress, TX