JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – It’s been two days since a gunman walked right into a Texas elementary college and opened hearth, killing a minimum of 21 folks, 19 youngsters, and two adults.
For Legal professional Richard Schwartz, his thoughts goes again to the lethal taking pictures that occurred at Pearl Excessive Faculty in October of 1997.
That morning, the gunman, Luke Woodham, murdered his mom, then went into the varsity killing two college students and taking pictures and injuring seven others.
Lydia Dew and Christina Menefee, who was mentioned to be Woodham’s ex-girlfriend, had been the 2 college students killed. Schwartz represented Menefee’s household.
“I bear in mind the Menefee household and the way laborious it was on them and the way tough,” mentioned Schwartz, president of Schwartz & Associates, P.A. “I can’t think about a household going via this. It’s the most tough factor you may think about.”
However out of this ache, Schwartz gained a brand new function. He got down to change the state’s regulation that will lead to capital punishment if a gunman shoots somebody on college property.
At the moment to get a capital offense and probably the dying penalty, it protected law enforcement officials, politicians, which must be protected, and even prisoners had been protected, however no youngsters had been protected, and it didn’t make any sense,” Schwartz defined. The lawyer admits, he bumped into some hurdles throughout this course of.”We had hassle with our state legislature in passing that regulation so we went nationwide,” the lawyer recalled. “We went Geraldo (Rivera), we went on Sally (Jessy) Raphael, we went on Lisa Givens, and made it a nationwide subject.”
He mentioned lawmakers initially had questions in regards to the proposed laws. However after a yr of urging lawmakers and persevering with to talk out on this subject, It formally turned regulation in 1998.
“In case you shoot somebody on academic grounds it’s a capital offense, topic to the dying penalty as a deterrent to guarantee that nobody else does it,” mentioned Schwartz. “I need individuals who even would take into consideration one thing that unhealthy to grasp that in the event that they get caught, they could possibly be topic to the dying penalty within the state of Mississippi, that’s not essentially true in any of the opposite states.”Since this regulation has been on the books, Schwartz mentioned he doesn’t know of another college taking pictures that’s taken place within the state, and he believes this laws is an enormous cause why.
Following the current college taking pictures in Texas, the longtime lawyer mentioned he’d wish to see different states craft comparable legal guidelines.” I feel it must be a nationwide subject in making it a capital punishment,” mentioned Schwartz. “It could not cease all the things however even when it stops one (college taking pictures, it’s properly price it.”
Woodham was not prosecuted underneath this regulation because it wasn’t on the books when the crime occurred. Consequently, he’s eligible for parole in 2046.
He’ll be 65 years previous.
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