Monday 15 September 2008

Pic of the day: Once you get a reputation as a pervert, you're guilty even if innocent. (Hopefully watching anime won't be perverse enough...)

8 years and still no justice

I predicted in my 8 years ago entry that there would be no fair trial for the suspects of the Baneheia murders here in Kristiansand, and this also came to pass. Some days ago, the guy there is no proof against tried to get the case heard again, but it will take some months for it to be rejected.

Let me say it again, there is no proof that the guy had anything to do with the murder, there is proof that he wasn't even there, but he was smeared with name and big photo on the front page of the tabloids. Also, at least in that photo, he looks like a B-movie criminal. He looks guilty as sin. Besides, he has some lesser sexual misdemeanor on his tab already.

Even so, the only "proof" is the say-so of his comrade, who also got a reduced sentence for squealing on his friend, though probably less than he had hoped. Nobody had seen him at the scene of crime. He used his cell phone from home while the rape and murder was going on. (Or at least the coordinates of the base stations were compatible with his home but not with the murder site.) There was DNA of squealer guy and some unknown person (but only a hair or some such, nothing related to the crime) but no trace of DNA from ugly guy. But he was convicted anyway. After all, everyone had seen him do it - in the newspapers.

If the editors of VG and Dagbladet go to Heaven - for everything is possible to God - then I hope they get told to first wait a couple decades in a prison cell before getting in. OK, perhaps not, but it is a pretty good expression of how I feel. It may have been events like this that led some weirdo to invent the idea of purgatory. Because humans are just too stupid to go right to Heaven, or Heaven would quickly become just as bad as here, unless we have some time to learn from this life before we try another.

And let us face it, it could have been me rotting in prison now. I don't have any record of indecency, but I have committed a similar crime, namely to be unspeakably single for decades. This is proof enough to common people that one is some kind of monster. My copious activity online probably gives me an alibi if something ugly happens in my neighborhood, but not an alibi strong enough to stand up against the front pages of the tabloids. Also, I am ugly. I may post more photographic proof of that in the future. My only redeeming trait is that I never smirk.

The mother of one of the slain girls has spoken up very strongly against getting the case tried again. It seems that nothing has changed with her. It does not matter to her if the man is guilty or not as long as someone is punished. At least there is no need to hope for any metaphysical punishment for her: She is already in hell, for her worm does not die and her fire is not quenched. I can't say for sure that I would have felt differently if such a crime had been committed against someone I loved. All the more reason to not love in the human way. More about that elsewhere, perhaps.

Anyway, for great justice, cases like these should be tried by a jury from the other side of the globe, people who can't even point to Norway on a map.