softheart
05-14-2003, 01:45 PM
This man is so right, what are we doing to our young. I have seen it so much in my work. We are bringing up men and women to be sitting on Death Row.
:(
softie
May 14, 2003
Georgia
THE CARL ISAACS EXECUTION
Caring for at-risk children can help head off tragedy
By JACK MARTIN
Carl Isaacs was executed last week for his involvement in the horrible
murders of six members of the Alday family.
Understandably, much of the reporting regarding Carl's execution focused
on the details of the murders, the subsequent trials and appeals, and the
pain suffered by the victims and their survivors.
But lost in the coverage was any attempt to understand the forces that may
have led a 19-year-old Isaacs and his compatriots to commit six senseless
murders on one afternoon. I do not presume to know the full answer, but I
know that there is more to the story than what has been reported.
When Carl was only 11, eight years before the murders, his fifth-grade
teacher took the time from her busy schedule to document and report her
concerns about Carl. Her report is a plea for help for a child at risk.
None of this justifies or excuses Carl's crimes. But it cannot be ignored.
What strikes me about Miss Patzkowsky's report is simply that the murders
did not have to happen and the life of Carl Isaacs did not have to be lost.
If at any early age there had been available the necessary services to
intervene to help him overcome his wretched childhood, Carl's life
probably would have taken a drastically different course.
Whatever one thinks about the execution of Isaacs, it is important to
recognize that we do more to prevent the type of crimes committed against
the Alday family by caring for our children at risk, as Carl was at 11,
than by imposing the death penalty.
The story is not simply that Carl Isaacs was involved in a monstrous
crime. The story is that there are reasons why it happened. The tragedy is
that it could have been avoided.
Source : Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Jack Martin of Atlanta was Carl
Isaacs' attorney)
:(
softie
May 14, 2003
Georgia
THE CARL ISAACS EXECUTION
Caring for at-risk children can help head off tragedy
By JACK MARTIN
Carl Isaacs was executed last week for his involvement in the horrible
murders of six members of the Alday family.
Understandably, much of the reporting regarding Carl's execution focused
on the details of the murders, the subsequent trials and appeals, and the
pain suffered by the victims and their survivors.
But lost in the coverage was any attempt to understand the forces that may
have led a 19-year-old Isaacs and his compatriots to commit six senseless
murders on one afternoon. I do not presume to know the full answer, but I
know that there is more to the story than what has been reported.
When Carl was only 11, eight years before the murders, his fifth-grade
teacher took the time from her busy schedule to document and report her
concerns about Carl. Her report is a plea for help for a child at risk.
None of this justifies or excuses Carl's crimes. But it cannot be ignored.
What strikes me about Miss Patzkowsky's report is simply that the murders
did not have to happen and the life of Carl Isaacs did not have to be lost.
If at any early age there had been available the necessary services to
intervene to help him overcome his wretched childhood, Carl's life
probably would have taken a drastically different course.
Whatever one thinks about the execution of Isaacs, it is important to
recognize that we do more to prevent the type of crimes committed against
the Alday family by caring for our children at risk, as Carl was at 11,
than by imposing the death penalty.
The story is not simply that Carl Isaacs was involved in a monstrous
crime. The story is that there are reasons why it happened. The tragedy is
that it could have been avoided.
Source : Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Jack Martin of Atlanta was Carl
Isaacs' attorney)