I awoke this morning, a Leap Day post for my writer’s blog twirling in my head. Then I read that Richard Schoenfeld, the youngest of the Chowchilla kidnappers must be paroled. Leap Day thoughts took thirty-six giant steps backwards to the 1976 summer kidnapping of bus driver Ed Ray and the school children. I can’t imagine their fear as they were transported from the quiet atmosphere of their hometown—and mine—to a rock quarry in Livermore, now my hometown.
The Parole Board made a mistake adding to his sentence, says Justice Robert Dondero writing for the First Court of Appeals in San Francisco. We all make mistakes, but this is a big one. They should have released him in 2008. Not that I wanted him paroled then or now. A life-sentence would have been my choice. But, rules are rules. Since the Board stepped over the line, those twenty-six children, now adults, who escaped without physical harm, will face another round of emotional trauma upon his release.
When Schoenfeld files—and wins—a lawsuit for emotional distress while receiving an additional four years of free medical and educational benefits during this unlawful extension, we will all become his victims.
Click here to view my writer's blog.
