I read with dismay the headlines recently in the paper, “Estella’s killers appeal”, but my dismay turned to shock as I read that there is an attorney who feels so passionate about Larry Ricketts that he will be defended to have his sentence shortened all the way to the Privy Council and even the Hague, no doubt at the expense of this country. I am totally amazed that the sentence of life imprisonment is considered cruel and unusual punishment for the most brutal and cruel murder that has ever taken place in the Cayman Islands (in my memory or even in recorded history).
The very fact that Larry Ricketts is appealing tells me that he has no remorse, no regret and no pain over what he did on 10 October, 2008.
All he cares about now is his precious freedom. He was free that night and he used that freedom to kidnap, rape, abuse, and murder an innocent woman. He needs to lose that freedom and all others. That is not cruel and unusual; frankly it is not even fair. Neither the death penalty nor life imprisonment would be justice for the deed they committed that night.
Larry Ricketts and Kirkland Henry are alive. They can still breathe God’s air, see a sunset, read a book, watch a football game, enjoy their favourite food. Estella, an innocent woman, is dead, tortured, abused, robbed, raped, and murdered in the prime of her life. She can never enjoy this life again, she can never laugh with her friends, hug her mom, celebrate a birthday or listen to music. Her life was snuffed out by two criminals. They were tried, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. They appealed and the verdict and sentence were upheld by the Appeals judge that these two criminals should spend the rest of their lives in prison, but we now have a learned attorney (a female at that!) who feels that that is cruel and unusual. At any time during their brutal and abusive spree on the evening of 10 October, 2008, they could have stopped.
From what I could tell, they did not even know Estella.
She was a woman alone and they were murderers. Any attorney that will take the case of these two murderers should take a little imaginary trip. Start in the Deckers parking lot on 10 October, 2008. Observe dispassionately as two men with probably four times the strength of one lonely woman, abducted her, took her to the loneliest part of Grand Cayman and did the unimaginable with her. Continue your observation as a dispassionate, invisible witness as they tied that plastic bag over her head and the last breath of oxygen was gone, and then walk confidently into a courtroom and defend her killers.
Her family and friends will never get over what happened to Estella. I did not know Estella, but I will forever mourn for her. I have spent many sleepless nights and many waking hours thinking about the horror of what Estella went through that night, and now knowing that someone cares enough about the freedom of her killers that they will defend them to the Privy Council and even the Hague, makes me realise that it is not only the Kirkland Henrys and the Larry Ricketts of this world that we have to fear.
Marjorie Ebanks
Related Videos
The number of lives that have been impacted and damaged is immeasurable; not only when it happened, but for all the years to come.
Yet, an appeal has been put forward; what are some people thinking?
The only regrets these two have are being captured, jailed and sentenced.
If the Government, (or whoever?), pays for their appeal/defense and it’s won, then they are equally guilty for this atrocity.
Hanging is insufficient for this crime!
I’m not sure how anyone seeking post-conviction leniencies for a diabolical rapist and murderer can sleep at night. Larry Ricketts gets to spend the rest of his life in prison praying to God for mercy, that is leniency enough.
OK,
Ezzard, Alden,Arden, Tony UDP and PPM get together on a bi-partison agreement and draft or amend the law to block and stop animals like Ricketts and Henry from appealing and getting the use of our tax dollars to defend criminals like them they are animals.