A man pleaded guilty yesterday to strangling a woman in an Atlantic City motel room last year….During Wednesday’s plea, Williams admitted that he strangled Bryant using a telephone cord during a fight inside a city motel room. He then said he placed her body in the van and abandoned the vehicle behind the bus terminal before fleeing for Texas.
Why Bad Justice?
Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain announced Thursday that David Williams, 48, admitted to aggravated manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Siddiqah Bryant.
He strangled a woman to death, and then dumped the body in a secluded place, and this is “manslaughter”? Why do judges accept pleas in cases like this? This is MURDER. It wasn’t you can just “rough-somebody-up” a little with a cord. Even if you do, when the person goes unresponsive, and you don’t call EMS, and dump the body where you can get a head start in fleeing the state, that doesn’t make anybody think that he didn’t mean to kill her.
So sick!
But if the end result is the same, who cares whether it is called aggravated manslaughter or murder?
The penalty in New Jersey is 10 years to life for aggravated manslaughter (normal sentence is 20 years), or 30 to life for murder. Both offenses require a minimum of 85% of the sentence to be served before eligible for parole. So in either case, he will be in prison until after he collects Social Security, and probably for the rest of his life.
This way, the state doesn’t have to worry that some cop screwed up some evidence collection, and the killer goes free. Nor do they have to spend the several million dollars that a murder trial will cost.
I think it is a good deal for the citizens.