A Cold Case Reason...
...We need stronger leadership in California. Three strikes legislation was a good idea. Once. Bill Jones of Fresno talked Governor Pete Wilson and Wilson's Appointments Secretary, fellow Fresno resident Chuck Poochigian, into adopting a "tough on crime" mantra. All have taken credit for California's "Three-Strikes" law. Even gave Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a 'crime fighting' merit badge to defeat partial repeal of the law. But where were these men when deceased killer Charles "Junior" Jackson went on an unchecked rape and killing spree against Bay Area women?
Jr. Jackson died in Folsom Prison without ever admitting to the murder of a young girl, a case which has languished for years in a small Northern California town nestled on the east side of the Oakland hills known as Moraga. Growing up there, we lived the "Saga of Moraga", slang for the fact that nothing much ever happened. Anxious to grow up as we were to experience 'the real world' -- it was shocking and scary that afternoon to see police lights and the Coroner's van while on the way to my Senior Ball on the eve of my eighteenth birthday.
The San Francisco Chronicle tells us "The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office announced today that it has used DNA evidence to link Jackson, a onetime handyman, to the unsolved killing of Cynthia Waxman, an 11-year-old Moraga girl who was sexually assaulted and strangled in April 1978 while playing with a kitten in a field near her home. "I'm gratified that the sheriff's office continued to work on this case and find the killer," Lorin Waxman, Cynthia's father, said today in a prepared statement. "This gives some closure for the family. This also removes blight for the community of Moraga, which was hit hard by Cynthia's murder. I'm glad for the community as well."
In 30 years, there were eight East Bay slayings of innocent women Jackson allegedly committed while on parole for burglary, rape, assault and child molestation. Three strikes? How about seven? That policy initiative would have saved at least ONE women's life.
Won't the script writers for Cold Case have new material now? A month after Jackson's death in prison, DNA expert Rockne Harmon, a senior deputy district attorney for Alameda County, said that genetic evidence gathered at crime scenes - and recently tested -- had "conclusively" tied Jackson to the other victims. Harmon eventually became a national DNA expert saying "Jackson was known to drive around in an old beat-up truck looking for victims. "(Jackson) would go door-to-door looking for handiwork and yard work," Harmon said. "If there was a woman home alone, and she opened the door, she was dead."
It's been nearly thirty years since that night in 1978. I live in Sacramento now, in a gated community with twenty four hour security personnel and an alarm system for my home. Three strikes? I don't feel safe.
Instead of running for "top cop" or "eagle scout", I wish politicians understood these are women's lives hanging in balance. Isn't there someone out there who wants to hold public office who knows how to make a woman feel safe?
Read the entire article at:
...We need stronger leadership in California. Three strikes legislation was a good idea. Once. Bill Jones of Fresno talked Governor Pete Wilson and Wilson's Appointments Secretary, fellow Fresno resident Chuck Poochigian, into adopting a "tough on crime" mantra. All have taken credit for California's "Three-Strikes" law. Even gave Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a 'crime fighting' merit badge to defeat partial repeal of the law. But where were these men when deceased killer Charles "Junior" Jackson went on an unchecked rape and killing spree against Bay Area women?
Jr. Jackson died in Folsom Prison without ever admitting to the murder of a young girl, a case which has languished for years in a small Northern California town nestled on the east side of the Oakland hills known as Moraga. Growing up there, we lived the "Saga of Moraga", slang for the fact that nothing much ever happened. Anxious to grow up as we were to experience 'the real world' -- it was shocking and scary that afternoon to see police lights and the Coroner's van while on the way to my Senior Ball on the eve of my eighteenth birthday.
The San Francisco Chronicle tells us "The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office announced today that it has used DNA evidence to link Jackson, a onetime handyman, to the unsolved killing of Cynthia Waxman, an 11-year-old Moraga girl who was sexually assaulted and strangled in April 1978 while playing with a kitten in a field near her home. "I'm gratified that the sheriff's office continued to work on this case and find the killer," Lorin Waxman, Cynthia's father, said today in a prepared statement. "This gives some closure for the family. This also removes blight for the community of Moraga, which was hit hard by Cynthia's murder. I'm glad for the community as well."
In 30 years, there were eight East Bay slayings of innocent women Jackson allegedly committed while on parole for burglary, rape, assault and child molestation. Three strikes? How about seven? That policy initiative would have saved at least ONE women's life.
Won't the script writers for Cold Case have new material now? A month after Jackson's death in prison, DNA expert Rockne Harmon, a senior deputy district attorney for Alameda County, said that genetic evidence gathered at crime scenes - and recently tested -- had "conclusively" tied Jackson to the other victims. Harmon eventually became a national DNA expert saying "Jackson was known to drive around in an old beat-up truck looking for victims. "(Jackson) would go door-to-door looking for handiwork and yard work," Harmon said. "If there was a woman home alone, and she opened the door, she was dead."
It's been nearly thirty years since that night in 1978. I live in Sacramento now, in a gated community with twenty four hour security personnel and an alarm system for my home. Three strikes? I don't feel safe.
Instead of running for "top cop" or "eagle scout", I wish politicians understood these are women's lives hanging in balance. Isn't there someone out there who wants to hold public office who knows how to make a woman feel safe?
Read the entire article at:
posted by Dr. Dora @ 3:51 PM
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