Brigitte Harris, has been found guilty of manslaughter, and she has been sentenced to 5 to 15 years in jail. With the help of her New York criminal defense attorney, her crime was lessened from murder. It wasn't the way that her father died that swayed the jury (because it was a violent death involving his castration) it was the events that led up to his death: her torture.
Several of the jury members asked the judge to grant her time served because of her traumatizing past.
As New York 1 reports, Harris was sexually abused by her father until she was seventeen. Her New York criminal defense attorney describes one of the ways that she was abused: "She was beaten until she had open wounds and her family made her get red hot peppers and stick it in the wounds and every orifice of her body."
Alberta Clinton, one of Harris' relatives does not believe that she was abused, but as her attorney notes, "She grew up in a loveless world, that's been verified by the prosecutor's experts."
After all of the rapes and beatings that Harris had lived through, the court psychiatrist was disappointed by the ruling. "I thought she should be set free. She's been abused all her life and it's time for her to be able to get her fair share in life."
Even though this is not the ruling that many were hoping for, she will be eligible for parole in as little as a year.
Related Resources:
- New York Criminal Defense Attorney Directory (FindLaw)
- NY1 News Report (with video)
- Where Can I Go? (CADV)
- Psycological Effects of Child Abuse? (APA)
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