[at-l] Thoughs about More re: Larry McDuff's death

[jbullar1 at TWCNY.RR.COM (Jim Bullard)]

At 09:50 AM 6/16/2005 -0400, Snodrog5@aol.com wrote:
>McDuff's daughter, Margaret Lewis of Atlanta, told a
>Mobile Register reporter that she forgave the driver
>and would ask the district attorney's office not to
>prosecute the case. When Ann McDuff was killed near
>Baldwin County 27 (now Alabama 181) and Baldwin County
>34 in 2003, the McDuffs urged prosecutors not to
>charge the motorist, she said. No charges were ever
>filed, according to court records and prosecutors.
>
>"My parents' deaths speak more than any prosecution
>can speak," Lewis said. "Nothing that happens to him
>is going to bring back my dad."
>
>Prosecutors would continue to pursue charges in Larry
>McDuff's death, but may have difficulty without the
>family's consent, Green acknowledged.

IMHO the willingness of the daughter to forgive the driver should have no 
effect on the prosecution or disposition of charges. Forgiveness is a good 
thing and I advocate it but its purpose is spiritual not civil. In 
sincerely offering forgiveness the injured party releases his/her own soul 
from being entrapped in anger and vindictiveness. In contritely accepting 
forgiveness the perpetrator frees his/her soul from crippling guilt. 
Neither of those mitigates the societal debt and the breach of the laws 
that create our social order. When Pope John Paul II went to the cell of 
the man who shot him and offered his forgiveness, that was the appropriate 
thing to do. When he left the cell his attacker remained in jail. That too 
was appropriate.

Charges should be brought. The courts should be the venue for determining, 
based on evidence, whether mercy is appropriate for this young man. 
Forgiveness is about spiritual justice. Worldly justice is a matter for courts.