Posted on 12/29/2008 4:34:09 PM PST by Canticle_of_Deborah
FRESNO, Calif. — Ellie Nesler, who sparked a national debate about vigilantism after killing her son's accused molester in a courtroom in 1993, has died of cancer. She was 56.
Nesler died Friday morning at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, according to hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown. She had battled breast cancer since 1994.
Nesler made headlines when she shot Daniel Driver five times in the head in a Tuolumne County courtroom during a break in his preliminary hearing for allegedly molesting four boys, including her then-6-year-old son William, at a Christian camp. Some hailed her for exacting her own justice, while others condemned her for taking the law into her own hands.
Nesler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, but her 10-year sentence was later overturned because of jury misconduct. She cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to manslaughter and get out after serving three years because she had breast cancer.
The case became a 1999 TV movie, "Judgment Day: The Ellie Nesler Story," on the USA cable network.
After the shooting, the Nesler family remained entangled in the legal system. In 2002, Nesler was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to selling and possessing methamphetamine. Outside the courtroom, she maintained her innocence, saying she felt she couldn't get a fair trial in Tuolumne County.
She got an early release from a women's facility in Chowchilla in 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
God bless this wonderful woman. May she rest in peace.
After reading the account on Ms Nessler and her family, I am casting a much more jaundiced eye at those actions. Read the complete article and see for yourself.
Whether you agree with what she did or not, you've got to admire her strong belief in defending the innocence of her child/children.
Wonderful woman? She killed a man and then became a drug dealer. I fail to see what is wonderful about that. Her life was a tragedy.
How on earth did she get it down to voluntary manslaughter? It was obviously not a heat-of-the-moment killing.
For the narrow benefit she did all children for offing a man our country should but won’t kill, I thank her. She may have done other bad things, but there are people who live a life free of the ramifications of being molested because of her action, no doubt.
What is it that Howie Carr says ...
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Presidential Medal of Freedom for her, Jeanne Assam, and Bernard Goetz (just for the hell of it).
She did not kill a man;she killed a monster;similar to stpping on a cockroach.Things(they are NOT human!!) like that do not have any rights as far as society is concerned.
After reading several Wall Street Journal articles by Dorothy Rabinowitz (a movement conservative) about how unethical shrinks acting in cahoots with ambitious and unscrupulous prosecutors trumped up child molestation charges against various individuals, I’m a lot more skeptical about these things.
A hero in my book for snuffing the dirtbag molester.
Agreed. He at least deserved a trial.
My cousin and I sent her some money.
She did a hard thing, but a right thing.
Sorry, but even child molesters do have rights in our society, and they certainly have a right to a trial by a jury of their peers. That’s one of the things that makes our society great: we protect even the rights of the most despicable, because if we did not, we could not guarantee the rights of anyone.
That being said, if the courts don’t mete out justice, the people will. Incidents like this shouldn’t be encouraged, rather they should be taken as a sign that reform in the legal process is necessary to satisfy the public’s rightful demand for justice in cases like this.
People in California used to know how to get things done.
“The San Francisco Vigilance Movement consisted of two popular ad hoc organizations formed during the Gold Rush period in 1851 and 1856. Their purpose was to reign in rampant crime and government corruption.”
I liked that last bit...
Vengeance is mine, sayeth The Lord.
but if she offed a pedophile vermin, I applaud her.
I encourage instances like this for child molesters.
an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth.
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