DaveOrion

I was so sickened by this story, I just couldn't believe it. This is why I often hate to watch the news. I like to stay informed, but when I hear stories like this, it makes me physically sick. Totally Evil.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/22/mis...oy.funeral.ap/

BRUNSWICK, Georgia (AP) -- A 6-year-old boy who police say was sexually abused, choked to death and dumped by the side of a road in black plastic trash bags was mourned at a closed-casket funeral Thursday.

An honor guard of firefighters stood at attention and a stuffed Spider-Man sat atop the young fan's casket as 400 relatives, friends and complete strangers packed the Edo Miller and Sons Funeral Home to remember Christopher Michael Barrios, whose brutal slaying has stunned this Georgia port city.

So many people came that the staff at the funeral home had to squeeze 100 chairs between the chapel pews. Even then, some stood and watched from the parlor.

"I feel like I came, basically, because he seemed like he was our child," said John Foote, a 40-year-old truck driver who helped in the search for Christopher along with his wife, Lynn.

Mourners in suits and dresses sat next to others in ball caps and T-shirts printed with Christopher's photo and phrases such as "We Brought Him Home, Now Bring Him Justice." Their voices joined as a single chorus, rising above sobs and sniffles, as the congregation sang "Jesus Loves Me." Some shouted "Amen!" during the preacher's sermon.

"When cowardly men do horrible things, it has nothing to do with the will of God," the Rev. Chris Foster said. "It has everything to do with the fact they have chose to follow the ways of the evil one."

Convicted child molester George David Edenfield and his parents, David and Peggy Edenfield, have all been charged with child molestation and murder in the child's death. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty. They lived near Christopher in a trailer across the street from the boy's grandmother.

A friend of the Edenfields, 35-year-old Donald Dale, has been charged with helping them conceal the boy's death.

According to an affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant of the Edenfield's home, 32-year-old George David Edenfield told police that he choked Christopher to death with his hands. He told them the "devil" told him to kill Christopher after he watched the boy arrive home from school.

Before the child was killed, authorities say, Edenfield and his 58-year-old father molested the boy while Edenfield's 57-year-old mother watched.
The indictment contains grim details about the case that police and prosecutors had not previously revealed. It says Christopher died from asphyxiation March 8 -- the day he was reported missing -- after the suspects choked him while "ignoring his complaints that they were hurting him." The indictment does not say which of three caused the boy's death.

It also claims George Edenfield and his 58-year-old father sodomized the boy and forced him to perform oral sex while Peggy Edenfield watched and masturbated.


Peggy Edenfield told police her son tried to wash fingerprints off the dead boy's neck with soap and water and then wrapped the body in trash bags, according to the affidavit. She said she helped her husband, David Edenfield, dispose of the wrapped body.

Christopher's remains were found last Thursday along a roadside three miles from the mobile home park where he lived with his father.

__________________
Syriana...have you ever tried liquid MDMA?....Liquid MDMA? No....Arash, when you wanna do this?.....After prayer...

Willravel

I have to wonder why this person was released when it is clear that he was still very mentally ill.

DaveOrion

I don't think they're mentally ill, and I doubt that's going to fly as a defense. The men are pedophiles who cant control their deviant sexual desires, and tried to cover it up by murdering a 6 year old child. The woman who masturbated while watching the crime is no better. I hope they all fry, and there by eliminate such scum from our society, or the outraged parents of the murdered boy could just stone them to death.....either way.

__________________
Syriana...have you ever tried liquid MDMA?....Liquid MDMA? No....Arash, when you wanna do this?.....After prayer...

Willravel

I mean mentally ill from a psychological perspective, not a legal perspective. I don't think it would be reasonable to release any of them ever.

While I sincerely hope they all have to be incarcerated for the rest of their miserable lives, I cannot support the willful killing of another human being, even if it's by the state.

DaveOrion

Unfortunately, the tax payers would foot the bill. On average a person incarcerated for 30 years ends up costing the state a million dollars. If prisons were self supporting, as some are, life imprisonment might do. In this case, I still think the death penalty is more than appropriate.

__________________
Syriana...have you ever tried liquid MDMA?....Liquid MDMA? No....Arash, when you wanna do this?.....After prayer...

Willravel

I don't want to threadjack, but you should know a few things about the death penalty:
- Capital cases burden county budgets with large unexpected costs, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The Budgetary Repercussions of Capital Convictions," by Katherine Baicker. Counties manage these high costs by decreasing funding for highways and police and by increasing taxes. The report estimates that between 1982-1997 the extra cost of capital trials was $1.6 billion. (NBER Working Paper No. w8382, Issued in July 2001)
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...did=108&scid=7
-"Elimination of the death penalty would result in a net savings to the state of at least several tens of millions of dollars annually, and a net savings to local governments in the millions to tens of millions of dollars on a statewide basis." -Joint Legislative Budget Committee of the California Legislature, Sept. 9, 1999
- The estimated costs for the death penalty in New York since 1995 (when it was reinstated): $160 million, or approximately $23 million for each person sentenced to death. To date, no executions have been carried out.
(The Times Union, Sept. 22, 2003)
- In Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
(2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research)
http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/cost.html

Either way the tax payers would foot the bill, I'm afraid.

DaveOrion

These stats seem to indicate the DP is higher in cost upfront, but not in the long run.

Cost of Life Without Parole: Cases


1. $34,200/year (1) for 50 years (2), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$75,000 (4) for trial & appeals = $3.01 million


2. Same, except 3% (3) = $4.04 million
3. Same, except 4% (3) = $5.53 million


Cost of Death Penalty Cases


1.$60,000/year (1) for 6 years (5), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$1.5 million (4) for trial & appeals = $1.88 million
2.Same, except 3% (3) = $1.89 million
3.Same, except 4% (3) = $1.91 million


There is no question that the up front costs of the death penalty are
significantly higher than for equivalent LWOP cases. There also appears to
be no question that, over time, equivalent LWOP cases are much more
expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents
ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more
than LWOP.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.p...c7d58059efe0a1

Either way the abduction, rape, and murder of a child is particularly appalling. I cant even imagine how the parents feel. I eventually left my work as a paramedic because of the death of a child. I suppose there's nothing worse than seeing an innocent child pass, unless that child is your own.

__________________
Syriana...have you ever tried liquid MDMA?....Liquid MDMA? No....Arash, when you wanna do this?.....After prayer...

Ch'i

I'm with will in wondering why this man was allowed to live around others, considering his history.