Father executes teenage son for child sexual abuse

[dolfan]

Read this story and answer the poll.

[Mike Vande]

Read this story and answer the poll.

God have mercy on these people. I don't know what else to say.

[free]

This is the kind of treatment that I feel people who hurt children this way deserve but this story is unbelievable...Not exactly sure how I feel.

[Brian]

"Caldwell said the sexual misconduct allegation that led to the confrontation wasn't part of the police investigation."

I don't understand how that can be. The events that lead up to the shooting are absolutely essential in finding motive and state of mind etc. etc. How can the police say that isn't part of the investigation? That's like saying if a policeman shot and killed someone that may have just killed ten people that they aren't going to investigate the ten shootings. ?????? really?

[Mike Vande]

"Caldwell said the sexual misconduct allegation that led to the confrontation wasn't part of the police investigation."

I don't understand how that can be. The events that lead up to the shooting are absolutely essential in finding motive and state of mind etc. etc. How can the police say that isn't part of the investigation? That's like saying if a policeman shot and killed someone that may have just killed ten people that they aren't going to investigate the ten shootings. ?????? really?

There is no need for the police to spend limited budgetary resources to investigate it. The perpetrator confessed to his mother, and if his own mother is calling him a child molester, what more proof do they need? No doubt, the father's lawyer will dig as much up about it as he can, and talk a lot about it at trial. The picture of the father makes him look like a nutjob. I wonder if that's the defense they'll mount?

[Susie Hamilton]

Unfortunately he was a mail carrier.

[PastorDaniel]

I can't imagine shooting my 14 year old son...but if he molested my 4 year old....he would wish that I would have shot him...because I believe that I would literally beat him so bad that he would be begging me to stop. So.....to a certain degree....I can empathize with the father....but only in rage...not in the action he committed....

[dolfan]

My wife spent 5 years investigating child abuse cases for the state of Alabama. She's seen it all. She works in child welfare still, just not for the state. She avoids all news accounts of abuse, won't discuss it much. I can state without qualification that she is propely unsympathetic to molesters. So, I was highly curious what her response to this very unusual turn of events would be. She was driving from a training seminar yesterday afternoon when I phoned her and told her the story.

She was really quiet for a minute. She's not given to many bold statements anymore on "big issues". She said, "I've heard my whole life that the world is about to end. I have just about quit believing it. That story gives me chills on my spine. I really do think that the world is coming to an end."

No eschatology intended for discussion here, but when my wife says something like that, she's deeply moved to say the least. I haven't been able to stop thinking of it. I've told it probably 15 times in the last 24 hours. People don't know how to respond to it.

It makes me think of two different fiction characters, or four depending on how you count: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or David Bannon/Incredible Hulk. Mr. Hyde was evil. The Hulk, though destructive, is a hero protecting the innocent. I've got to confess to you, that a big part of me wants to think of this guy more like the Hulk than Hyde. I don't know enough facts yet. But, it has long been my personal conviction that anyone who kills a child molester deserves a medal. I personally know of people who, guilty of it, committed suicide when faced with the consequences; no medal, but as close to human justice as you can find. But, is this also just? Again, my conviction is strongly toward a "yes" to that. Yet, how can a man shoot his own son who is begging for his life? That part escapes me. That part troubles me about it more than any other. The humiliation factor of stripping him naked and publicly taking him outside with nothing more on him than he entered this world with. Yeah, it adds a Pulp Fiction element to it, but this is not fiction. This happened. What do you do with that?

[Paully_44]

i cannot imagine a dad executing his own child as so called punishment.
I guess it shows where the boys messed up genes came from. Doesnt excuse the boys actions, but I wonder what happened during the early years of that boys life.

[dolfan]

So, Paully, are you saying this teenager molested his little sister (which, I've since read, that's who he molested) did it because of his genetics?? Really?

Now, I'll allow this much --- that maybe the 15 year old was an abuse victim. But, guess what? So are many, many adult molesters. Question: How does that mitigate the damage done to the molesters' victims? Answer: It doesn't.

This is not my argument in favor of what the father did. I've already admitted I'm hard pressed to find a category in my own mind and heart where this is comfortably right. But, I'm sufficiently motivated to keep looking for now, not knowing any more than I do. Why? Because my first inclination is to stand up and yell, "Yes, Daddy, yes." This nearly grown person, this 15 year old who knew better, molested a little girl. That stands on its own for me. And, my own personal opinion is that the world is better off without him, and that the best justice on earth is the quickest in such cases.

But, that's just me. That's a father's anger. That's the drive to see retribution done for deliberate harm to a small innocent. What troubles me most is this father's ability to carry this through. He will have to answer to the law about it, but is the law equal to the task of bringing justice to this man?? No. It is not. This is larger than the law. This man made a decision (perhaps "irrationally", but a decision) that his daughter's innocence and vulnerability were more important --objectively so-- than the lives of himself AND his son. There's a nobility in that, as I see it. Yet, barbaric and murderous from an objective point of view. Justice cannot be had, here. Whatever happens to this man at the hands of the legal system, freedom or imprisonment or execution, will not be just.

[Ilovebigcats]

As HORRIBLE as it is.. that Dad saved several little girls from a life of horror. If we lived in OT times.. this Dad would have done the right thing morally. It is horrifically sad.

How could a Dad do it? How much worse would it be to NOT have done something and sent your kid to jail to only come out WORSE. Or not report it and try to "help" only to have him do it again through out his life. There is just no way for me to wrap my mind around this.

[Ilovebigcats]

And what if it was your little girl? Would you really expect mercy on a cowardly molester begging for his life?? Why are we questioning this Father? Walk 1/4 mile in his shoes and you might be ready to kill also. A 3 year old girl.. her innocence robbed from her. The world is totally coming to an end!

[Paully_44]

So, Paully, are you saying this teenager molested his little sister (which, I've since read, that's who he molested) did it because of his genetics?? Really? .

not at all. What I was alluding to is if the kid had a dad who was screwed up enough to execute his own son, just wonder what the forming years of his life were like.

[Brian]

Like many of you, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this. If it was my 15 son and my 3 year old daughter I would beat the living daylights out of him! He would seriously have it coming. But to take the extra step and kill him? Then, we as christians might answer that it is "right" to do such a thing? How so? "Right" to the believer should mean "right" as in moral Godly approved "right". I challenge anyone to biblically support a christian preforming an execution. You can't.
Now that's not to say that justice shouldn't be dealt out, it should. But to personally take the life of your own child and it be considered "right"?
( This father may not be a professing christian but that fact wouldn't make the act any more right or wrong.)
Now sure enough you can find support for God's righteous judgement against such a violent person (the son), but you cannot find support for the christian to take such a personal retributive action. Remember, christians are called to be different from the common man. Does that mean we will always "feel" different? I say no. But that doesn't mean that we aren't required to "act" and respond differently. We are.

Still, it's a terrible situation for the whole family.

[Ilovebigcats]

If it was my 15 son and my 3 year old daughter I would beat the living daylights out of him! He would seriously have it coming. But to take the extra step and kill him?

What would his future be? Do you think beating him would change anything? Would it help your daughter? Could you trust him to stay in your home? So many HARD questions.. I think this Father may have made the most excruciating decision and took the easy way out. It is HORRIBLE.