I was catching up with a friend from college a few weeks ago and he asked if I'd heard about David (name changed as his actual first name is pretty unique). I hadn't, but I knew immediately it wasn't going to be good. I googled and found that David had been convicted about four years ago for possession and distribution of child pornography.
It's weird to say that as dismaying as it was I wasn't totally shocked. If you had put a gun to my head and told me to name the one person among all my friends I'd think is most likely to have this particular mental defect, David would have probably been a contender. His lack of mental acuity is apparent in most any exchange. He was never a successful student nor was he successful professionally after he dropped out of college. From what I know he wasn't close to his family and he was never particularly financially stable. I wouldn't be surprised if upon testing his IQ were discovered to be well below average.
On the other hand, I always thought he was a good person. He was kind and funny and we shared an interest in a particular subgenre of music that not too many people followed, so we took periodic day trips to small venues around the southeast. We stayed in touch lightly after I graduated and left Auburn, but when I made the move to New Jersey we pretty much lost all contact.
There was a published decision in Federal court regarding his appeal, so I know more of the facts than I would otherwise. He was temping at a job and evidently downloaded or viewed some images on a shared computer that someone else at the office later found. The office manager called the police who called the FBI who figured out that the images were accessed at the same time as some of David's personal accounts. The FBI later seized his personal computers and hard drives from his home and found hundreds of saved images and a about a dozen saved videos. He was sentenced to 12 years and his sentenced was reduced on appeal to 9 years. His current release date is July 2021. Of course he is also obligated to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Sexual abuse of anyone - adult or child - is one of the very few acts that would allow me to personally pull the trigger on someone and feel virtually no guilt, so I don't take his crime lightly. But I've written to him and now I'm a bit torn as to whether to send the letter I wrote.
Not to sound too grandiose, but I think we have an obligation to show people who have been locked up that there is a world out here waiting for them. It doesn't do us any good as a society to put people away and do nothing to help them turn things around upon release. I think it's also my religious upbringing that makes me want to reach out to him. My parents were involved in a prison outreach program when I was younger. I heard a lot about it and I suppose it made an impression on me.
Anyway...thoughts?
It's weird to say that as dismaying as it was I wasn't totally shocked. If you had put a gun to my head and told me to name the one person among all my friends I'd think is most likely to have this particular mental defect, David would have probably been a contender. His lack of mental acuity is apparent in most any exchange. He was never a successful student nor was he successful professionally after he dropped out of college. From what I know he wasn't close to his family and he was never particularly financially stable. I wouldn't be surprised if upon testing his IQ were discovered to be well below average.
On the other hand, I always thought he was a good person. He was kind and funny and we shared an interest in a particular subgenre of music that not too many people followed, so we took periodic day trips to small venues around the southeast. We stayed in touch lightly after I graduated and left Auburn, but when I made the move to New Jersey we pretty much lost all contact.
There was a published decision in Federal court regarding his appeal, so I know more of the facts than I would otherwise. He was temping at a job and evidently downloaded or viewed some images on a shared computer that someone else at the office later found. The office manager called the police who called the FBI who figured out that the images were accessed at the same time as some of David's personal accounts. The FBI later seized his personal computers and hard drives from his home and found hundreds of saved images and a about a dozen saved videos. He was sentenced to 12 years and his sentenced was reduced on appeal to 9 years. His current release date is July 2021. Of course he is also obligated to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Sexual abuse of anyone - adult or child - is one of the very few acts that would allow me to personally pull the trigger on someone and feel virtually no guilt, so I don't take his crime lightly. But I've written to him and now I'm a bit torn as to whether to send the letter I wrote.
Not to sound too grandiose, but I think we have an obligation to show people who have been locked up that there is a world out here waiting for them. It doesn't do us any good as a society to put people away and do nothing to help them turn things around upon release. I think it's also my religious upbringing that makes me want to reach out to him. My parents were involved in a prison outreach program when I was younger. I heard a lot about it and I suppose it made an impression on me.
Anyway...thoughts?
