Posted on 03/05/2007 2:18:25 PM PST by PercivalWalks
A successful married man with young children at home pursues a romantic liaison with a co-worker. When the co-worker doesn’t sufficiently reciprocate his affections, he stalks her boyfriend for two months, and devises a plan to kill him. He collects weapons, disguises himself, packs up some garbage bags to dispose of the body, and drives 900 miles to attack his rival. He launches the assault but the boyfriend manages to escape and notify the police, and the man is arrested and charged with attempted murder.
Would CBS commentator Harry Smith express sympathy for this “poor" fellow for “falling in love” and then “crash-landing”? Would Fox News commentator Steve Doocy opine that "love makes you do weird things," and claim that prosecutors were being too hard on him?
Would MSNBC describe him as a stressed out “super dad” who “snapped”, ignoring that the two months of stalking and preparation sure were a long, slow “snap”? Would MSNBC have a psychologist sympathetically explain that the would-be murderer acted because he was “experiencing the fear of abandonment” that was “so terrifying” that he had to “secure the love object and eliminate the threat"? Would a reporter for a major newspaper describe the murder attempt as the man’s effort to “share with someone else a bit of the pain swelling inside”?
Lisa Nowak is receiving widespread sympathy, in part because she is legitimately admired for being an astronaut. But a large share accrues because she’s a woman, and our society—both men and women—views women’s misdeeds more sympathetically than men’s.
The media is soft-pedaling numerous aspects of the Nowak case. Practically every media outlet has explained Nowak's decision to wear astronaut diapers on her journey to allegedly attack romantic rival Colleen Shipman as a bizarre, freakish action indicative of her mental instability. In reality, Nowak acted with logic and calculation—she did not want to stop several times on the way from Houston to Orlando and leave a trail of convenience store camera records behind her. For the same reason, when Nowak arrived in Orlando she disguised herself, checked into a hotel under a fake name and address, and paid cash.
Similarly, numerous commentators have described Nowak’s equipment--a 4-inch folding knife, a steel mallet, several garbage bags, rubber tubing, a BB gun, and pepper spray--as “wacky” or “bizarre.” They are nothing of the sort. Orlando police believe Nowak intended to kill Shipman, and she probably planned to utilize the garbage bags to dispose of her, perhaps in Galveston Bay. As Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones explained, it was a “fairly elaborate plan.”
In widely-reported comments, Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon, said that Nowak may have come unhinged due to the burdens of being a female astronaut. According to Clark:
"They made more sacrifices than the ‘right stuff' guys. They have to balance two careers, be a mom, wife and an astronaut. You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you.”
Space travel is and always will be hazardous, but the astronauts of the dawn of the space age depicted in The Right Stuff faced far more danger and uncertainty than today’s astronauts do. The assertion that astronauts today--even women astronauts with families--deal with greater stress is dubious.
One major newspaper sadly lamented Nowak’s “meltdown”, a term usually used to describe a performer’s onstage temper tantrum, not an apparent murder attempt. One commentator labeled Nowak an “unfortunate” individual who “has been the subject of relentless news coverage…[and] hounded and beleaguered by the press,” an unusually sympathetic description of the media attention people bring upon themselves when they try to kill someone.
Nowak’s neighbors have lent her their support, and both her former Naval Academy classmates and a Florida restaurateur are raising money for her legal defense. And, of course, a movie about Nowak’s life is in the works.
Nowak was let out on a light $25,500 bail and, except for those grumpy Orlando prosecutors, most are trivializing what she did. In 2002, Scott Peterson killed Laci Peterson and disposed of her body in San Francisco Bay. Except for the fact that Nowak botched the job, is her alleged crime much different?
This article first appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News (2/26/07).
Jeffery M. Leving is one of America's most prominent family law attorneys. He is the author of the new HarperCollins book Divorce Wars: A Field Guide to the Winning Tactics, Preemptive Strikes, and Top Maneuvers When Divorce Gets Ugly. His website is www.dadsrights.com.
Glenn Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in dozens of America's largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his website at www.GlennSacks.com or via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
It's that mug shot of her. You can see that she's thinking, "I have really f***ed up my life."
Did Scott Peterson wear a diaper? Wow, the things we learn here!
I agree with the writer, another thing about the gender bias, is that if a male, military officer had done this, there would be more thought of his military professionalism involved in this carefully planned murder effort.
One flipped out, the other was a cold hearted calculating clymer.
How can they be compared (save for planning criminal acts)?
Well, she didn't try to kill her. That's the biggest problem with the attempted murder scenario that I see. Would she have? Maybe. But we don't convict people on what they might have done. That would require a degree of mind reading that we don't possess yet. I say, prosecute her to the limit for what she DID do and forget about what you think she might have done.
That has to be one of the saddest, most pathetic mug shots I have ever seen.
Actually she did try to kidnap her, and all her supplies indicate premediated murder, so yes she should be charged with attempted murder or, at least conspiracy to murder.
Where is the mug shot?
There is no photo at the source.
Nowak premediated planned to kill, so the comparison is valid. How did she flip out. Read it again. She planned to kill thie other woman and would have done so, if the other woman hadn't managed to fight her off.
Gender bias is inherent. A cursory glance at the "naughty teachers" posts in this forum (where a female teacher molests a male student) makes it evident. If they're attractive, they're "not guilty!" If they're homely looking, they're guilty. It's human nature.
I am a member of the only "can't be oppressed"minority existing in America...a white, middle aged, professional male.
And the worst part of it is that "we" buy into this fallacy and indeed propagate it. From female astronauts to women murderers to female teacher rapists their actions are pooh pooed but if you substitute a WMPM into those scenarios, the peanut gallery would be screaming for our scalps and other more southern appendages.
To be guilty of conspiracy, one has to conspire with another to commit an act. She's the only one involved (that we know of). Conspiracy would be an improper charge. Attempt might be chargeable, depending on how far she got. There's no real crime of "planning and hoping to kill someone" unless it's accompanied by an illegal act.
Really? She planned this for two months. If anything, peterson probably acted with less premeditation than Nowak did.
But he has a penis so he's pure evil while Nowak is to be pitied.
Nonsense. This bitch was going to murder and butcher Shipman to eliminate her romantic rival. When men do this or kill the object of their unrequited affections, they are not pitied whatsoever.
Takes more than one person to constitute a conspiracy. You still ignore the fact that she didn't do anything to the woman but spray pepper spray in her car. That isn't attempted murder. Attempted kidnapping, yes. And I'll even go so far as to say that the circumstances don't lend themselves to a lot of leniency. But there wasn't any assault capable of causing grievous bodily injury or death. It just didn't happen. No attempted murder.
So if a man wrote in his diary that he planned to kidnap, torture and murder a child and for some reason could only grab and pepper spray a small girl, he would not be charged with attempted murder?
So we reward the incompetent or unlucky criminals for not seeing their plan to conclusion. If the woman had reacted differently to the pepper spray or acquiesced like a coward, we'd be looking at a dead woman.
It's attempted murder.
To recap, Peterson murdered spouse and unborn, Nowak did not murder [estranged] spouse and born, but went prepared to do harm to a third party.
I don't see a legitimate comparison between the two.
I'm surprised Nowak wasn't held for psychiatric observation for a month.
And I'm surprised that some people consider her the victim.
Maybe it is the petite high achieving female syndrome.
I'm glad she was stopped in time and didn't go Medea.
Oh yea? how many astronauts were killed during space flight missions in the pre-shuttle days. Answer, none. How many in the shuttle era? 14.
There were four astronauts killed pre-shuttle in spacecraft, but none in space flight. 3 during a ground test of Apollo, one in the X-15.
Not really, if she had wanted to kill her "rival", she could have bought a handgun or other firearm in just a few minutes in any gun store, sporting goods store, or pawn shop in the Greater Houston area. Instead she took a fake gun. To me that's evidence of wanting to scare the other woman, not kill her. Kidnapping is still on the table, attempted murder is not.
She may have contemplated something like this for two months, but I'd hardly call racing 900 miles in a diaper, to be at the airport when the other woman arrived, evidence of "planing".
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