Dry September
A case of an attorney committing a murder based on false allegation from his wife reminded me of the William Faulkner short story “Dry September.”
In the story, a woman accuses a harmless old black man of sexual misconduct. It doesn’t take long before a cadre forms and murders the accused. To the participants, it is the defense of the white woman that is important. Facts only enrage them.
The murder of Barry James in Fairfield, Connecticut is what brought this to mind. A patent attorney, Jonathon Edington, was told by his wife that James, a neighbor, possibly molested their daughter. Based on that, the man killed James. There was no basis for the allegation except perhaps too much television. The murder took place on 28 August, 2006 after Edington broke into James’ bedroom.
Barry James was stabbed eleven times. He was dying when discovered by his mother. Edington calmly called 911 to report an injured neighbor and cleaned himself. James’ mother’s call to 911 was not calm.
The murderer was sentenced on 31 August, 2007 and received a mere twelve years in prison.*
This case has its Miss Minnie Cooper as Christine Edington, Jonathon’s wife. Jonathon Edington presumably acted alone in the execution, but there are plenty of townsfolk who felt the lynching was justified because any allegation of child molestation must be true. To go further, the reasoning is that parents will do anything to protect their children and the murder even if mistaken is justified, just as the white woman of the short story had to be defended by murder even if she fabricated the accusation.
Edington’s wife claimed that her two‑year‑old said that James came to her in the “starry night.” The wife stated that the girl made specific claims of laying things on her stomach and nose. The likelihood is this was response to very leading statements.
This scenario is hard to imagine with two parents sleeping in the same house and hearing nothing plus the girl not saying anything until she and her mother were on vacation, and the girl wanted to stay at the vacation spot. With all that alleged activity, changes in behavior would have been obvious even to the casual observer.
The police found no evidence of molestation by anyone. Christina Edington refused to cooperate with the police.
Even after Fell’s Acres, Little Rascal’s, and other witch hunts, the gullible insist that children do not lie about sexual things. But in those cases, the coercion of children to become victims for the state was as criminal a behavior as any pedophile. It was carried out by police, prosecution, and social workers. They got away with it. Some of these children believed, after becoming adults, that they were hanged upside down in trees that were seen by passersby; or that they were tortured in secret rooms that are known to be nonexistent.
The people who propagate this paranoia are no better than the characters in “Dry September.”
The judge was amazing in his own right. He seemed to excuse the unrepentant Edington and sentenced him to a mere twelve years in prison. Judge Richard Comerford compared the crime to a Shakespearian tragedy. This is not even close.
Judge Comerford criticized Mrs. Edington but not by name. Truly, this woman should have been charged for being a party to murder. There is no excuse for her part. Her attorney claimed postpartum depression. That might even be true. But, dangerous persons are incarcerated or executed without any concern of mental disease or defect. So why should postpartum depression be an allowable reason for party to a murder. A dangerous person is dangerous no matter the cause. Even a judge’s facetious reference to a stage play cannot mitigate a cold blooded execution nor exonerate the prime mover of the murder.
Truly, anyone who makes false allegations of child abuse needs to go to prison. The consequences for the accused innocents are harsh to the point of murder. The cost to society is huge in court costs and prison expense. Add to that the lost income of the incarcerated and the innocent in prison robbed of their time and their families.
Even if the falsely accused is not murdered, there is still too much loss. I have no sympathy for the accusers who operate from paranoia, vengeance, and bigotry.
* Most states have harsher sentences for men accused of merely glancing at the photo of a nude minor.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Criminal Justice,Rants
