Thursday, February 6, 2014

My response to the article in last Saturday's paper about Chris Sepulvado's execution. Hello my name is Yvonne Jones, Author of a Time to Heal the Struggles of a Battered Woman. I'm writing in reference to the article printed on Sat. January 25, concerning Christopher Sepulvado's execution. It simply amazes me what our country has come to. This man has been on death row for 22 years, and still to this day wants somebody to have sympathy enough for him to keep him from having any pain a few short minutes before he dies. I know for a fact that his man was arrested for wife abuse, child abuse, and suspected of killing 2 other children before he was arrested for the murder of this child. He had also been arrested for numerous DWI's, and was at that time driving without a driver’s license. They had been suspended because of those DWI's. There was also a child in a mental institution who was unable to function because of the abuse he sustained from this one man. My question is where was the law when he committed all these crimes? Why was he considered to be just a good ole boy who can't stay out of trouble simply because as he put it "I can talk my way into and out of anything." Don't get me wrong, everybody deserves a second chance, but when you've had as many chances as he's had and still after 22 years on death row his only concern is how much pain he's going to endure for the few short moments before he dies, then it tells me the only thing that changed while he was locked up was the fact that he got older and that’s it. What about the pain and death he caused the people he abused. Louisiana is one if not the main state with the highest crime rate. Its because people like him are able to convince the law that they're pretty good guys, they just have a few problems they need to deal with. The problem is abuse like this didn't just start, its been going on for years now and until people get educated on what to look for in someone who is abusive, and women learn to look for those signs before getting involved with someone, then this cycle will never end. Children don't have a choice in the people we choose to get involved with or marry, but their opinions are usually the last to get heard, if they are heard at all. Abuse is something no one wants to talk about, but the problem is its happening everyday all around us and nobody including the law understands it. Unless you've been in an abusive relationship you won't understand how easy it is to get involved with an abuser, or how hard it is to get out the longer you stay once you are involved. I'm sorry but the reason we have such a high crime rate is people like him know that they can get away with murder, or anything else for years before anything is ever done to them. Why is this one case so important to me, because this was my son he murdered, and I too had to go to prison for 7 and 1/2 years because there was no understanding about abuse and what happens to a person mentally while they are enduring abuse. I too suffered at the hand of this man and my family as well as my son’s family is still suffering today. It’s just sad that after 22 years you can't set a date for an execution because nobody wants the poor guy to suffer a few minutes before he dies.