Kathy Boudin was recently released from prison after 22 years. For those of you who do not remember who Kathy Boudin is, here's the story. Back in the 1960's Boudin was part of the radical movement. She got involved with a revolutionary group called the Weather Underground.
In 1981 this group organized a robbery of a Brink's truck at Nanuet Mall in Nyack, New York. Boudin's responsibility was to drive the getaway car. During the Brink's robbery the guard, Peter Paige, was killed. The group was finally stopped at a road block and Boudin got out of the car and surrendered herself to the police but no one else involved did. The others involved started shooting at the police and of course the police couldn't shoot because there was one person who surrendered. During this shoot out two officers were killed Sgt. Edward O'Grady and Officer Waverly Brown. Boudin was convicted April 26, 1984 on a single count of felony murder in the second degree, involving the shooting of the Brink's guard at the Nanuet Mall, and a second count of robbery in the first degree. She was sentenced to 20 years to life imprisonment. Now on her third attempt at parole, it was granted.
This kind of thing just blows my mind. She was involved in a crime that caused the death of 3 innocent people. It does not matter if she was just in the car or unarmed. She knew that the men she was waiting for had guns and knew the possible outcomes of this crime and she still went along with it. Then when she and the others were stopped, she surrendered. Well isn't that nice. She knowingly stopped the police from being able to shoot in her direction while enabling her friends to fire at will. How sweet of her.
Unfortunately because she could not be directly tied with that shooting and had "surrendered" she was not charged with the death of the officers. On her web site kathyboudin.com her supporters wrote about what an exemplary prisoner she was, getting an education, helping with HIV/AIDS victims and all of the other wonderful programs she started. She was even offered a job at a hospital when she was released from prison. So after she committed robbery and aided in killing she became a good person.
I personally don't care if she became a saint after she still committed a crime and should have to finish her punishment. Another reason she was paroled was because she said she was sorry. If Jeffery Dahmer said he was sorry for all the things he had done should we have said that's ok as long as you're sorry. Well sorry does not't bring those three people back to life or erased all of the bad things that she had done. It also stated on her web site that she had never participated in an offense in which anyone was hurt. So the fact that she had a past criminal record did not't matter. She was a repeat offender just not of violent crimes. Yet none of this seems to have been considered in the parole hearing.
To finally get to the point, this woman needs to spend the rest of her life in jail! Yes she said she was sorry but also blamed her involvement on the fact that she was young and idealistic. She was 38 when she committed this crime, well beyond the young idealistic phase in life. She was just a person who disagreed with society's laws. If you don't like'em LEAVE! Our justice system needs to crack down and stop pitying the criminal and remember the victims instead.