Today
is probably the first time you’ll ever hear the name Kami Ring. Unfortunately, in
all likelihood, it’ll probably also be the last.
Ring
– 10, of Cecil County – was buried today, the victim of an exceptionally
heinous crime committed by someone she regarded as a family member.
Ring’s
body was discovered in a field behind the Port Deposit home where she’d been
staying last Monday. According to the report
in the Baltimore Sun, “She was partially nude, with signs of a cutting injury to
the neck and injuries indicating she had been raped, as well as having been
struck in the head, the charging documents state.”
Her accused killer, Richard Eugene Madden, Jr., has been charged
with first- and second-degree murder, as well as rape and assault. A serial
offender, Madden was released from his most recent prison stint in February
2013, and was in jail on drug charges when police linked him to the crime.
Though not related by blood, Ring regarded Madden’s parents as her
de facto grandparents, making Madden
her de facto uncle.
According to The Sun,
Madden posted the following message on Facebook: "right now i am going out
of my [expletive] head.........my neice kami want missing some time in the
night or morning... so pleas if i have seen or heard anything please let me
know ASAP."
Apparently, when searchers wanted to check out the field where
Ring’s body was found, Madden tried to direct them elsewhere, explaining, “Those
babies would not be walking over there near those briars."
A DNA test positively linked him to biological evidence found
on Ring’s body. A gray shoestring was found on the child’s body, and Madden’s
tennis shoes were found to be missing their gray shoestrings. Madden also had, “scratch
marks on his body he could not explain.”
At a candlelight vigil, Ring was remembered as a consistent honor
roll student who achieved a perfect attendance record during the most recent
school year.
As I heard this story reported on the radio, I felt myself getting
angry.
First, of course, I got angry at the monster who perpetrated this
crime against an innocent child.
Second, I got angry at the governmental leaders who – through
their blithe arrogance – decided to repeal the state’s death penalty during the
most recently-concluded legislative session.
Maryland
has never been known for its swift and sweeping application of the death
penalty. Since its reinstatement in 1978, only five people on death row were
actually executed, the last execution occurring in 2005. Instead, it remained
an infrequently-used option to be applied in only the most egregious cases, as
well as a valuable tool for prosecutors.
Nonetheless,
the state’s political establishment – buoyed by ballot box wins on other
progressive touchstone issues in 2012 – decided that eliminating capital
punishment was its next burning priority.
In
a June 2nd opinion piece in The
Sun, Benjamin Jealous – president of the NAACP – celebrated the
repeal of the death penalty and the failure of so-called “right-wing activists” to get it on the ballot.
Still,
solid majorities of Marylanders (54 percent to 41 percent according
to a February 2013 Washington Post
poll) supported the state’s death penalty. Among that majority:
Democratic Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Doug Gansler and Democratic Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger.
Now, the death penalty repeal does not take
effect until October 1st – which I presume means Madden could
technically still be eligible for it.
Still, I question whether a prosecutor will even
bother trying to impose it
during its waning hours.
I hope I’m wrong…because, to me, it sure seems like
this guy deserves it.
So, at the end of the day, here is where things
stand: Kami Ring goes into the ground, and her killer will – in all likelihood – avoid a similar fate, thanks to the misdirected compassion of the Maryland
General Assembly and Governor Martin O’Malley.
I’m sure the progressive activists who worked so
hard to repeal the death penalty – majority will be damned – are breathing a
collective sigh of relief that Madden will be spared the ultimate penalty if he
is convicted.
