By no means am I the only one who is infuriated by the incomprehensible verdict of Assault and Battery in the case of Karen (“I was picked on by my sister-in-law because I’m petite and pretty and she’s jealous”) Robidoux. Karen is the wife of Jacques Robidoux, who was convicted of first degree murder last year in the starvation death of their 10 month old baby, Samuel.
This from the Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh, who with his staff has been working on this case for over four years:
“This much is certain: Samuel was systematically starved to death before his first birthday by his father and his mother,” the statement said. “There is a time to temper justice with mercy. In my view, this wasn’t one of them. Individuals are responsible not only to God. Parents have legal responsibilities; feeding your kids is one of them. People have to stop making excuses. Never before in 14 years as district attorney have I been this disturbed by a verdict.”
Rather than admit that this was a sympathy verdict to a petite, pretty woman, two members of the jury blamed the prosecution for the jury’s inability to find Robidoux guilty of a more serious charge.
It must have taken a village to come up with this twisted rationale: per the 51 year old male foreman, the prosecution never “proved” that Karen Robidoux “intended” to kill her 10-month old baby by not feeding him.
Let that one sink in for a minute: while everyone else in the house of horrors known as “The Body” was stuffing their faces, a 10 month old infant was not being fed by any adult, including his mother, and no one “knew” that this would result in his death.
More from the foreman: “We were tied to the element of intent because the prosecution brought the case forward as a joint venture,” he said. “That eliminated the charges of murder and manslaughter because she would have had to know (Jacques Robidoux’s) intent and share his intent.”
In other words, she’s a pretty girl and we didn’t want to convict her.
Attorney Walsh is right: People have to stop making excuses.
Convicting a woman of murder or at least manslaughter for the systematic starvation death of her baby should be a slam dunk – regardless of how much the foreman wants to go to bed with her.