17
February
GIVING A VOICE TO THE VICTIMS (Our criminal-justice system must empower children who have been sexually abused)
In one of the most outrageous cases of injustice, a Suffolk County court judge recently sentenced John Shelton to only one year of jail after he pleaded guilty to raping and sodomizing his stepdaughter for years. In a statement from the girl read by her mother, the judge was asked: is this all my life is worth to you? She added, When someone does something wrong, they should be punished, and I have been punished for five years.
This child got a profoundly powerful message that the price