Lisa posted the story of Victoria Martens, a 10-year-old who was brutally murdered in Albuquerque:
In a statement, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) called the manner in which Victoria was killed “atrocious.”
“What happened to this little girl is unspeakable,” she said, according to media reports, “and justice should come down like a hammer on the monster who committed this murder.”
Governor Martinez (a former prosecutor and previous Democrat) has been making noise about bringing back the death penalty (for child killers and cop killers) even before Victoria Martens’ murder. I guess that’s the kind of talk Republicans want to hear.
Do you think if this state had the death penalty, Victoria Martens would still be alive?
If the death penalty really worked as a deterrent, I might be for it. But it doesn’t do anything except quench our thirst for revenge and cost a lot of money — just like making drugs illegal isn’t a deterrent to people using them and how the billions of dollars we’ve spent on the failed drug war has just been wasted.
Like in Victoria’s case, meth was involved here, too:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/couple-wanted-womans-killing-kids-kidnapping-arrested-231022653.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California couple wanted in connection with a woman’s killing and the kidnapping of her three children in the Los Angeles area were arrested Thursday in Colorado.
Joshua Aaron Robertson, 27, and Brittany Humphrey, 22, were arrested without incident in Pueblo, about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The couple was wanted in connection with the death of Humphrey’s half-sister, Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found with multiple gunshot wounds along a road in a remote area of Los Angeles County on Aug. 14.
Investigators said the couple kidnapped Harvill’s three young children, who were found safe Wednesday in a motel on the outskirts of Albuquerque. Humphrey is Harvill’s half-sister, and therefore the children’s aunt…
Harvill and her children had most recently lived in Fresno and were transitory, moving from motel to motel, sheriff’s Capt. Steve Katz said Wednesday, adding that they depended on panhandling to survive. Harvill was involved with methamphetamine, as were Humphrey and Robertson, Katz said.
The father of Harvill’s children, Kenneth Chad Watkins, killed himself by lying in front of a train last year, according to the Fresno County Coroner…
Three children, now without either parent. You have to wonder what these three kids will grow up to be.
See, Governor Martinez decapitated the mental health system in this state, falsely accusing a handful of providers of wrongdoings and refusing to pay them (in effect, closing them down). While these providers fought to clear their names, the governor gave contracts to out-of-state providers (paying back political promises) to replace them. I’ve read that a few of these out-of-state providers have already gone bankrupt, but I don’t know how many.
Which leaves patients without continuing mental health care, as well as having to deal with new providers, never an easy thing. What was Kenneth Chad Watkins being treated for before he gave up and committed suicide?
Statistics say that meth is even more popular than heroin in New Mexico (but not as popular as marijuana). I just read another study about the 17 states that have medical cannabis programs and how the amount of painkillers, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medications have been substantially decreased in these states. But in New Mexico (as well as around the country), drug abuse and overdoses have increased.
I guess all the restrictions on my allergy medicine haven’t stopped the meth epidemic. The opioid war is obviously not stopping the heroin epidemic. Really, the DEA should be fired. Maybe Trump can take care of that.
The drug war isn’t the only reason that kids are being killed:
According to the Washington Post, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said McMorris killed the infant after discovering he wasn’t her biological father. A paternity test had confirmed that fact about three days before the baby was killed…
All Things Chronic 
I agree with you about the death penalty and the so called war on drugs. Neither prevent anything. Both are an expensive joke.
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Something extreme needs to be done with these monsters who committed these heinous crimes. I don’t think they deserve to live after what they did. I guess the next best thing in New Mexico is life in prison. The mother of Baby Brianna is supposed to be released this year, 15 years later after the baby’s torture and murder. New Mexico needs to do something about their drug and child abuse problem (I’m not really sure what!). I’m not saying this doesn’t happen in other parts of the country but it’s just really really bad there. There’s a lot of meth and child abuse there. How can they let Baby Brianna’s mom go? I don’t get it. Thanks for including my blog post here. I’m so sad over this story. I couldn’t stop thinking about it last night. I had a hard time falling asleep.
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I don’t know how people can be so cruel and inhumane. Trying to understand such behavior is impossible. I just accept that it exists in this world, along with a lot of other things that I cannot change, like child terrorists who blow themselves up.
Drugs and child abuse go hand-in-hand with poverty. When every day is about survival, instead of living, life becomes a jungle. And when you don’t have much money, you’re forced to barter with things that are valuable on the street, like drugs and sex.
The goal would be to prevent such tragedies. How should we do that? Increase the drug war? Put a 24-hour monitor on certain people? Not allow certain people to procreate? Forced sterilization? What kind of test will show us who’s a good person and who’s a bad person? Does it matter if the person is bad because of mental deficiencies or diseases? Does it matter if the bad person was sexually abused as a child? Does it matter if the bad person didn’t care about anyone else because he was suicidal?
I don’t want to be the judge. I don’t want to be the one who decides who lives and who dies. That’s way too much power for one person. And if you believe in god, isn’t that his job?
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You’re asking good questions. The laws aren’t as strict there (so it seems) so maybe they should start there. Why weren’t they monitoring the boyfriend closer? If you commit a crime, you have to pay somehow. I’m trying hard not to judge but they took an innocent child’s life away. The way they did it is very upsetting. How can a mother and those ‘people’ live with themselves after that? Meth makes people do crazy things but still! I don’t think it completely justifies any of it.
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Sad man 😦 … i’m an advocate for the death penalty for child sex offenders / predators … the cheap version … let victims of sex offenders BYO gun and bullet 😉 and pretty sure there’d be an incinerator for cheap hire that all of us wouldn’t mind chipping in for burning the remains … but thats not going to happen here … sadly.
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