This is exactly how we felt regarding the prosecution of Troy Robins who killed our daughters:

“We didn’t want him (Aksamit) to go to jail for a long time,” Kent Sanders said. “But this punishment is meaningless and raises our biggest fear that something like this could happen again.” “Sanders (a son of the deceased couple) added that his family took no solace in being allowed to speak at the sentencing, which he described as “a completely meaningless and irrelevant exercise of emotion.”

“But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t powerful”, Donald Bradley, reporter for The Kansas City Star wrote. “Diane Packingham, who was in Richard Sanders’ Sunday school class, carried a Macy’s sack to the front of the courtroom, set it on the floor and pulled out a pair of boots and shoes.”

“These were the shoes they were wearing that day and now they’re empty,” Packingham said to Aksamit. “And now they’re empty because of you.

“I recommend that you fill them. You volunteer at the charity breakfasts in Freeman.”

Read the full article here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article18524930.html#storylink=cpy

It’s wrong when the judicial system slaps the hands of the unrepentant and fails to hold accountable those who have no respect for the authority of the law. The message it sends these offenders is that the law doesn’t apply to them and it further undermines the laws everyday citizens abide by and value while re-victimizing families who expect the perpetrators to be punished – seeking justice; not vengeance.

This is a shameful reflection of our judicial system because it puts law abiding citizens at risk while simultaneously reinforcing illegal behavior.

(Facebook Post 4/15/15)