Remy returning to the booth

mauf

Anderson Cooper × Mr. Rogers
Moderator
SoSH Member
The more I think of this strategy, the more it makes sense.

Jared Remy wasn't going to avoid a murder conviction. A trial was only going to generate lots of sworn testimony about what a despicable person he is. Even if he was only convicted of second-degree murder, the trial record would make him an extremely unsympathetic candidate for parole in 25 years.

Society's attitudes toward crime and punishment have changed markedly over the years, and they are still evolving. Perhaps in 30 years we will be granting parole hearings to people who were sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Perhaps our politicians will decide that incarcerating older men who no longer pose a threat to society is a poor use of tax dollars. Perhaps his daughter, as an adult, will petition the governor for his release. His ability to take advantage of any of those developments will be greater without the record that a trial would create. So he accepts his guilt (usually a prerequisite for any sort of leniency), and he asserts that he acted out of love for his daughter, in a forum where that assertion is not subject to cross-examination. Someday, he'll claim that his decision saved his father's career, to say nothing of the assets that would have even spent on his defense, and he'll say he did it all for his daughter.

I don't personally hope for any of those things to happen, and the smart money says Jared Remy will die in prison. But this is probably his best chance to avoid that. And while I'm glad the Martel family will be spared the trauma of a public trial, I'm also a little bit disappointed that Jared Remy won't be called to account in that sort of public forum.