Is this the type of cultural diversity that we are supposed to welcome to our shores?  Ria Ramkissoon accepted an odd plea deal with prosecutors this week after she helped starve her son to death because he refused to say “Amen” after a meal.  She insisted on entering a compromise in which her guilty plea will be withdrawn if her son is resurrected from the dead.  How very likely.  Somehow I don’t think the district attorney has to worry too much about botching this one. 

However, her plea requires her to testify against other members of her religious cult, and she will probably only serve about a year in jail.  A year in jail for knowingly starving her son to death and then hiding his decaying body in her closet for over a year?  How disturbed has our legal system become? 

Of course, when stumbling upon an example of this country’s cultural decline, one somehow always uncovers the typical scenario behind the scenes.  Apparently Jewish lawyer Steven D. Silverman decided that this was a worthwhile case for him to defend.  After all, this poor misguided immigrant was probably just discombobulated from all of the Caucasian hostility fermenting around her, right?  But it’s nice to know that this sick woman will be roaming our streets again in a very short time, devouring tax-funded psychiatric services:

“Ria will be out of jail in a matter of a couple months and will still benefit from psychiatric services, cult deprogramming and whatever other services would be beneficial to her,” said her attorney Steven D. Silverman.

Below is an excerpt from the article describing her crimes.  I’m glad that the fellow members of Mr. Silverman’s tribe have assured me that no culture is “better” than any other, at least when I remove my ethnocentric goggles.

A former religious cult member who helped starve her son to death believes he will be resurrected, but legal experts say her extreme faith doesn’t make her criminally insane. The mother made an extraordinary deal with prosecutors Monday that her guilty plea to child abuse resulting in death will be withdrawn if her 1-year-old son, Javon Thompson, comes back to life. Law experts and psychiatrists said there was no problem with the agreement because Ria Ramkissoon, 22, was mentally competent and freely entered into the deal, and extreme religious beliefs aren’t deemed insane by law….

The boy died more than two years ago when cult members stopped feeding him because he refused to say “Amen” after a meal, according to a statement of facts. His body was hidden in a suitcase packed with mothballs and fabric softener sheets behind a home in Philadelphia for more than a year.

On Monday, Ramkissoon answered a series of questions from Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory about whether she understood what she was doing when she pleaded guilty. A court psychiatrist wrote she was both competent to stand trial and criminally responsible for her son’s death….

The psychiatrist was right to find Ramkissoon competent despite her insistence on her son’s resurrection, Gray said….

The plea deal was a good one for Ramkissoon, who was initially charged with first-degree murder. She received a suspended 20-year sentence and only has to remain in custody until she testifies against four co-defendants who are charged with first-degree murder in her son’s death. She could be out of prison in August, serving about a year behind bars.

Article

Filed under: Nation • Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

Possibly related posts