Woman Condemned

A little heads up - This weekend I will be mobile blogging live from the street where Judly Neelley lived as a child. I will be posting phots and commentary on the landmarks still standing. I hope you will all join me here. If you have anything you'd like to see or discuss please let me know. You can also join in the discussion of Judy's case as well as the book written about her on the forums. Anyone is welcome to get in touch with me at lilredwriting at hotmail .

Alyssa Bustamante YouTube Video

I was asked today why I focus on the women on the row and not all prisoners on the row. (Hiya Skylark and Big Lin!) I suppose other people have wondered this too. I knew a very special woman who was killed on death row. I was a juvenile delinquent. I have been in some pretty hairy situations in my younger years. I have seen devastating abuse, Ive seen evil, vicious acts. Ive been in jail. I have seen some horrific things happen to people just because they were prisoners. Women in particular. Because of these experiences I can sometimes look at a woman who has committed a crime and understand where she came from. Why her mind was in that state and how she could become the creature that committed the crimes. Even those kinds of crimes that your government can kill you for.

How can we let this happen? Gaile Owens is about to be executed. She has spent her last appeal. Yet Mary Winkler, another husband murderer in my home state served 67 days after killing her husband and has just been granted custody of her children. The cases are so similar and yet have such drastic, terrible ends. Look at some of the similarities as stated in a recent Tennessean article: * Both of them were examined — some 20 years apart — by the same psychologist, Dr. Lynne Zager of Memphis, who said that both suffered from battered woman's syndrome — a condition that courts have recognized as "a female who is the victim of consistent, severe domestic violence." * In both cases, the spousal abuse included lurid sexual details. In Owens' case, the sexual encounters were more violent and also involved her husband's extramarital affairs. Mary tesitified in her own defense- Gail didnt. Could that have mattered that much? read the entire Tennesseean arti...

The Judge in the Casy Anthony Case has ruled that he will leave the death penalty decision to the jurors. With the state considering the death penalty, that ruled out one of her lawyers. He new lawyer addidtion is a death penalty expert thou. Do you think she will be given the death penalty?

Teen Says Television Show Dexter Inspired him to Kill - ABC News What in the hell is wrong with this kid? He will not get the death penalty but there is a very strong possibility that he will receive life with no parole. His parents are supporting the charge of murder.

More on Alyssa Bustamante, the 15 year old murderess... Alyssa was in court this week and her attorney has entered a not-guilty plea to charges of first degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 21 stabbing and strangling of 9 year old Elizabeth Olten. The arraignment Tuesday lasted one minute as Bustamante sat silently in the courtroom and carefully avoided eye contact with anyone. Yesterday Alyssa’s attorney asked that the trial  be moved outside Cole County because the locals there are biased against her. The attorney says there is no way she can get a fair trial in Cole County because they are so prejudiced against her. If she is found guilty for this she willmost likely be sentenced to life in prison.

One of the only two women on Tennessee's Death row is closer to her execution. The state has filed a motion to set an execution date for Gaile Owens. In a motion filed Tuesday, the state said Owens had exhausted her three-tier appeals process after the U.S. Supreme Court last month denied her petition for a rehearing. Owens was convicted in 1986 in Shelby County for the murder-for-hire of her husband. The 57-year-old was the first female to receive the death penalty in Tennessee. She is accused of hiring Sidney Porterfield to kill her husband with a tire iron. Porterfield was also sentenced to death and is still on death row.

Michelle Byrom stands convicted of conspiring with her son, Edward Byrom Jr., to murder her husband of fifteen years. According to the State of Mississippi, Michelle convinced her son and his friend to shoot his father with his own WWII family heirloom rifle from her hospital bed in true Charlie Manson style. It is their belief that she was aiming for revenge after a life of ferocious attacks at the hands of her husband. That, and a $100,000 life insurance policy. According to Michelle, she didn’t know of her sons intentions. She contends they neither discussed nor planned anything. He simply grew tired of seeing her take daily ass-whippings. “Today it will stop” he said to himself one morning upon waking and then went about the task of stopping it. Michelle Byrom had a rough childhood. Her step-father repeatedly used her as a punching bag and surrogate wife, taking turns beating and raping her. She loved her mother but still doesn’t understand why she felt telling her about the...