Family

I wanted everyone to know that after two LONG and grueling days of extremely difficult to hear testimony complete with extraordinary lies and even the crocodile tears of false remorse from the defendant (at the coaching of an unscrupulous defense attorney) coupled with a very well done prosecution from District Attorney Greg Griggers of Marengo County, it took the jury all of 5 minutes to convict the man that murdered my mother of the charge the D.A. was after: a conviction of murder. Hearing the jury foreman read the verdict around 5:30 p.m. last night (Friday) was such a relief after sitting in the courtroom hearing things that a son, a daughter or even a complete stranger should never have to hear or experience. It was obvious all along that there really couldn’t be any other conclusion, but you just never know.

Unbelievable that people could put families through such crap for what really was a foregone conclusion at the start, but thank God that the jury could see through the obvious lies and attempts to lessen the evil that exists in some people. We still don’t know what the actual sentence will be in terms of years–that will come later, around Thanksgiving, when each of us has an opportunity to provide an impact statement. (I’m hoping, of course, for the maximum, and that could keep the guy in jail until he dies, I think.) But a murder conviction is the most that we could ask for, so a weight has been lifted off my shoulders somewhat and I’m hopeful that things can get back to some semblance of normalcy for me for the first time in 18 months.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts and positive energy and for just being there to listen. And for those of you who didn’t know about my Mama, you missed an opportunity to know a very special person–but don’t worry, I’ve got some plans to go into her history in some more detail in the future.