Wilbert Rideau Free

[mft112345]

"After more than 40 years behind bars, Rideau, convicted killer and celebrated prison journalist, walked out of the Calcasieu Parish Jail a free man. On his fourth trial, the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The judge immediately sentenced him to 21 years, about half of his time served, and released him." http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-A1000/1106118054161880.xml?nola ________________

According to one of his surviving victims, Dora McCain, Mr. Rideau, "the most rehabilitated man in America," slit Julie Ferguson while she begged for her life. He shot Ms. McCain and Jay Hickman and left them for dead.

Over the years, instead of apologizing to his victims and expressing remorse to their families, Rideau smoozed his contacts in the media and universities to paint himself as society's victim. Based on the victimization rhetoric on his website, www.wilbertrideau.com, you'd almost think that that someone slit Mr. Rideau's throat.

While in prison, Mr. Rideau often expressed outrage about released inmates who had committed similar crimes. What's unfair and unjust is that the rising cost of incarceration has become more significant than the interests of a killer's voiceless victims.

Without denying the crime, Mr. Rideau miraculously became less guilty because of the unbalanced racial make up of his jury. This complaint won him appeals, enabling him to cheat justice, himself, when key witnesses became too old to testify in person.

Mr. Rideau complained that he only remained in Louisiana State Pennitentiary because of his good deeds at the prision newspaper, the Angolite. His remarkable stories garnered much deserved praise from NPR, the New York Times and Larry King, but the causes he promoted were also in his own self interest. They allowed him to settle old scores and earned him greater freedom of movement and power insided the prison.

As a man who had once faced execution himself, Rideau published post-mortem photos of an inmate who had been "baked like an apple" to shame the Department of Corrections into retiring Louisiana's electric chair as cruel and unusual. (The chair was cruel and ununusal, but no more so than Mr. Rideau's hand-held Guillotine.)

Mr. Rideau also got Louisiana's executioner fired for running his mouth on Australian televison. He also blew the whistle on a prison condoned sexual enslavement system.

Rideau always remained eager to list his numerous journalistic awards, but he refused to address questions about his remorse towards his victims and their families. In 1995, he said: "What's this interview about? I thought we were going to discuss the Angolite."

Life imprisonment would have been just punishment for his deliberate, grisly murder. There is no justice in setting a murderer free on a technicality, much less an unrepentant murderer.

During one interview Mr. Rideau said, "The crime that brought me to prison is not the final definition of Wilbert Rideau."

Now that he's free, will we find him expressing full and unequivocal remorse for his crimes and spending his remaining days finding ways to compensate his short-changed victims? Or will we find him on the speaking circuit still minimizing his crime against Julie Ferguson and demonizing those who believe his victims deserve justice?

[Ginifer]

An interesting commentary to read about this case:

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/schapman.htm