Being Judged

As the community of Orangeburg, South Carolina, comes to grip with the aftermath of the alleged murder of two small children by their mother, her attorney Carl B. Grant is urging people not to rush to judgment.

The inclination of some people to judge and condemn Duley is exactly what Grant said he is trying to combat for his client, to ensure she gets a fair trial. Inside his office, located in the center of town, local newspapers are spread across a wooden desk in the waiting area. All are different front pages from throughout the week - and all have his client's mug shot splashed across them.

Grant cautioned that Duley's statement to police may be excluded from any trial if she was under duress or not in the right frame of mind when she was questioned. To those who feel the case is open-and-shut, he emphatically urged they keep their minds open.

"Do not rush to judgment. Do not feel that just because a person is charged with killing their own children that, my goodness, just throw them under the bus," Grant said, his voice rising with emotion.

Of course, a lot of people will say that's the attorney's job -- to try to make his client look as good as possible. He will do everything in his power to weaken the prosecution's case and try to muddy the water as best he can.

If the mother indeed is guilty, then I hope she does the time. While there may be many mitigating factors, we each still need to take responsibility for our own actions. Despite the fact I agree with her attorney that we shouldn't rush to judgment before all the facts are presented, if it turns out she's guilty as charged, I believe she should receive a just sentence.

The thing that worries me about crimes of this nature is that the viewing public is too quick to define a person for what might be their worst day.

Every single one of us has done things that we are not proud of. While we may never have ended another person's life, our "sins" may be very egregious, nonetheless. Who, in anger, has not said something to a loved one or close friend that ended the relationship right then and there? Who among us has not said or done something that caused another person severe emotional distress?

We may assuage ourselves with the knowledge that the other person was able to walk away, that we neither killed nor maimed them. But words and nonlethal actions can sometimes reverberate throughout a person's life and severely alter the trajectory of that individual's life in very detrimental ways.

You see, we really don't know about the reach of the ripples we create throughout our lives. Just because you or I can't see all the people and situations our words and deeds impact, this does not mean that no impact is made. We may frequently set-in-motion a chain reaction that, somewhere far, far down the line, ends up maiming or killing someone.

In fact, I even can offer an example of this kind of chain reaction. Because Americans are married to our gas guzzling vehicles, the obtainment of petroleum is a paramount concern of our government leaders. This oil addiction that you and I share has resulted in US aggression in oil-producing countries and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghans. Though neither you nor I pulled the trigger of the gun that sent a bullet crashing into a young child's brain, the blood of that dying child still stains our hands.

And so, when we look at the Shaquan Duleys of the world and judge them for one horrific decision, we must ask ourselves if we should be judged based on our own worst decisions too?

If so, we may be just as guilty, if not more, than she is.