Karla's Another Chance!

I very much agree with the Globe and Mail Christie Blatchford on the fact that Karla Homolka is not deserving of the opportunity to start again; she is, however, entitled to it.

These days you cannot ignore all the publicity that she has received as a freed prisoner. She is everywhere. On TV, in the papers, even a subject of conversation at my parents’ dinner table.

The first time I came to know about the crimes that were committed 13 years ago, Heather was taking me through the neighbourhood where she grew up. She told me about the ordeal and what the teenagers went through back then wondering how they could protect themselves against sociopaths like Karla and Paul. They raped the teenagers, butchered their bodies and taped the act with great pleasure.

I use the term “sociopath” which refers to a person that is hard-wired not to have a conscience to feel guilt or remorse. Such people are known to be skilfully manipulative and innocent looking. They are usually perceived as conventional people who do not run into any problem with the law. They are very intelligent and usually gang up with others of similar personality.

As Ms. Blatchford points out, Karla was a stellar student, smart as a whip and considered a diligent and trustworthy employee. She was raised to be a “good girl” she says. She was a model inmate and completed all her programs. She even got a university degree in psychology (ironically enough) and learned a second language. Yesterday she said what she did haunts her on every birthday and Christmas and she will never be free from her own prison, in a very girlish innocent and sexy voice on CBC radio.

So Canada, Karla is back as “innocent”, cute, sexy and intelligent as before. She is single this time and anyone who loves to “love” an ex-con is welcome to feel her “welcome”!

And yet her lawyer fiercely fights for her right to live an easy and free life away from the paparazzi, after prison. I wonder if he really believes that she is a different person and will live a different life! If anyone is there to blame for her unjustly short sentence, it should be him. Was he a good lawyer or Karla a good manipulator? Perhaps he believed she was innocent from the get-go!

Will sociopaths ever change?