Judge upholds death sentence in van Dam killing

CNN ^ | 1/1/03 | CNN

[concerned about politics]

Just some things to think about.

They say OJ didn't kill his wife, but that doesn't mean he didn't.
People have a tendancy to know stuff, or just have a feeling something else is missing in this story. There's too many blank pages. Too many questions left unanswered.

[Amore]

BTW, if anyone wants to see a replay of Judge Mudd's sentencing, it can be found right now at:
www.FeedRoom.com

[concerned about politics]

The ACLU upholds the rights of some individuals and groups in this society while squashing the rights of the rest of us.

If you're not a liberal mutant, they'll call in their trial lawyer police and destroy you. They call it "civil rights."

[CedarDave]

Another weird killing with un-answered questions:

Killer Ate Girly Chew, D.A. Hints (NM murder)

[Freedom2specul8]

My Gosh! I wonder how they came up with that theory... And her name...!

[is_is]

Can we finally leave the smearing the parents aside and discuss the murderer of Danielle?

The parents brought the attention to themselves....had their daughter not been murdered their "little" secret life would have gone unnoticed. The fact is though....they did NOT provide a safe enviroment for their children.....argue if you want, but there is much more to their life style than came out in court....the judge barred alot of that stuff.

The VD's may not have been directly envolved in their childs murder....BUT....they were responsible for her safety and did not in my opinion provide her with a safe living enviroment.

[Freedom2specul8]

I hope we'll learn more as documents are released...

[cyncooper]

the judge barred alot of that stuff.

He certainly did. As he said in court today---not once, but twice---there was information withheld from the jury that was VERY DAMNING to David Westerfield.

[Freedom2specul8]

Yep, I heard that too...

[is_is]

My comments have nothing to do with DW's guilt or innocence....I am simply referring to the parents responsibility in loosing her..........I've given the example before....if i take my daughter into a "bad" area of town to buy crack and she is shot during an unrelated drive-by shooting....am i responsible in her death??? of course i am!!! These people are responsible in that same way IMHO.....

[cyncooper]

My comments have nothing to do with DW's guilt or innocence

I had perceived that the first time I read your comments.

I think you misrepresent the activities of the van Dams and I pointed out the perpetrator of the crime.

[bvw]

Despite the enormous amount of physical evidence

One spot of "blood" -- evidence lost in "testing" btw -- is most definitly NOT an enorous amount of evidence.

Something in this case is enormous however ... and that is the mob's frenzy and the media's lather.

[sissyjane]

What about Danielle's fingerprint on the cupboard next to the headboard of Westerfield's motorhome? What about her hair in the bathroom sink that was the length of her hair when they found her,and the length recorded in a passport photo that had been taken the day before she was taken? (which by the way had just been cut the Saturday before).What about the blood on the floor of the Motorhome? What about her hair that was in the sheets in his house-in his bedroom-.What about her hair in the dryer lint in his house?Need I go on?

[Diamond]

She was drunk and flirting with strangers in the bar..but it was never proved or admitted to that they ever brought strangers home. They said they had 2 extra-marital one night consensual affairs with long time friends.

What an interesting statement. Knowing human nature, though, ADMISSIONS would be just the tip of an iceberg. But those admissions by themselves are damming enough.

Cordially,

[Jaded]

There's too many blank pages. Too many questions left unanswered.

Therein lies the problem for many of us. Maybe Monday's releases will have something new. Alas, Dusek said there will be nothing new in them and that everything they were going to use they did. If they didn't use it, it's unimportant.

The whole truth would be a nice change in this case.

[cyncooper]

But those admissions by themselves are damming enough.

Damning enough for what? For you to denounce the van Dams? To be sure they engaged in distasteful behavior, but the crime here was kidnapping and murder and that was perpetrated by David Westerfield, not the van Dams.

[Hildy]

HOW DARE YOU profess to know how much/how little this woman loved her DAUGHTER. You are sick. Sick. Sick.

[ChemistCat]

My kid jumped over a barrier and into a near-frozen lake when he was 2 years old. Was I responsible for preventing that? I sure as heck was--but I wasn't omniscienct, and I never saw it coming. I'm the one who jumped in after him and saved his life--but I was just lucky that I could. What if it had been a swift-moving river instead of a lake? My momentary failure of attention which was symptom of a wider lack of understanding of 2 year old behavior (he was my first!) might have cost him his life. Did that incident change my ways? Of course. But it might not have mattered; it might have been too late.

That was hardly the only time when my lack of foresight created a risk. All the perfect people on here who make no great mistakes in life may not understand that most of us are simply lucky with ours.

Parents can't see everything, can't prevent everything, and can't always see that they are making fundamental mistakes that are due to vast failures of imagination or, in this case, moral values. I am positive that the Van Damm family no longer suffers from such a failure, but they didn't get lucky, learning their lesson. Not at all.

I repeat: the one who killed Danielle was not invited in, and failing to lock a door only gives evil an in--it does not create evil deeds.

There was a time when my values weren't conservative or in line with moral absolutism. Nobody deserves to have their daughter die a painful, bloody, ugly death because they are arrested at an earlier point in their moral development.

[Freedom2specul8]

That kind of smugness is what started the westerfield fights in the first place...way back in march. :-p

[sissyjane]

You bet they are victims. Their seven year old baby was taken out of her bed in her own home by a monster that did unspeakable things to her before he brutally murdered her and left her by the side of the road like garbage.Do you have children?