Tuesday, July 03, 2007

On David Ritcheson



A recent story in the news tells that he committed suicide by jumping overboard from a cruise ship. Earlier he was in the news for being attacked:

A Spring teen who survived a brutal beating with a pipe last year jumped to his death from a Cozumel-bound cruise ship on Sunday.

Carnival Cruise Lines officials would not confirm his identity, but Rick Dovalina, head of LULAC in Houston, said Sunday night that he learned through the family's attorney, Carlos Leon, that 18-year-old David Ritcheson has died.

...

Ritcheson's death comes less than three months after he testified before Congress about how two teens nearly killed him on April 23, 2006, by repeatedly kicking a patio umbrella stand into his rectum while shouting "white power!"

The two teens who raped him got very long sentences for their crime. Ritcheson got a very short life. It's important to remember that the suffering of the victim does not end when the crime does.
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Initial link via mia culpa.