At first glance, you’d figure this was a news story that just had to come out of the United States where actions by courts, juries, parole boards and prisons raise so many eyebrows that the court beat is one of the best on any newspaper.
But this one involves the freeing of one of Canada’s most notorious killers:
One of Canada’s most notorious female criminals says she’s going to live in Quebec now that she’s been released from prison.
Karla Homolka (search), 35, was secretly spirited from prison Monday after serving 12 years for the rapes, torture and murders of three teenage girls, including her younger sister.
Homolka received the relatively light sentence in return for her testimony against her ex-husband Paul Bernardo. Homolka told the court and psychiatrists she was a battered wife who took part in the rapes and murders to protect herself and her family.
Months after prosecutors made the deal, however, Bernardo’s attorneys handed over homemade videotapes by the couple that indicated Homolka was a willing participant, drawing the ire of Canadians.
You can click HERE to read the grisley details of the crime (we’ll pass on including them).
What seems to have thrown fuel on the fire is the fact that as soon as she got out she went to a television studio to argue her case for release:
Karla Homolka, speaking in French, told the CBC on Monday that she was only a follower and didn’t initiate the murders of two Ontario schoolgirls and her own sister.
In an interview conducted less than two hours after she left prison, Homolka told SRC, the CBC’s French language service, that she’s nervous and anxious to be out of jail for the first time in 12 years. But she decided to give a media interview to explain her side of the story.
“It was a very difficult decision to take because I am a very private person and I don’t like to talk about my feelings. I want to keep things to myself but it is not possible. So I decided, with my lawyer, that this was the best thing to do because I don’t want to be hounded and I don’t want people to think that I am a dangerous person who’s going to do something to their children. I think it’s time I talk.”
God forbid anyone think that she might be at all dangerous. Perhaps she can pursue a lucrative side business as a baby sitter. MORE:
Wearing white trousers and a black top, her hair still blonde and worn long, Homolka seemed rehearsed and at ease as she answered questions for nearly half an hour.
Did she understand why the media was encamped outside the prison?
“Yes and no,” said Homolka.
Why give an interview in French?
Because, she said, “each time I watched the news in French and especially Radio-Canada they were not as sensational. They don’t shout, it’s serious and I want to re-start my life in French.”
This case points out the continued tug between the concepts of punishment, rehabilitation and deals worked out at trials. In the end, advocates of one of these three pillars wind up feeling unsatisfied.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.