Could you forgive Michelle Kehoe?

Yesterday in Independence, Iowa, a woman named Michelle Kehoe was sentenced to life without parole for an unspeakable crime: She drove her two young sons into the woods and tried to murder them, then slit her own throat. One boy lived, but his brother died. At that point, Kehoe made up a story about being attacked by a stranger. Her defense had argued that Kehoe suffered from mental illness.

The Iowa City paper reports that Kehoe's husband read an impact statement. He said she was an "excellent mother" and deserved to be forgiven. He also asked the judge to lift a no-contact order so that he could write her once a month and, eventually, the surviving son might have some contact. The judge left the order in place for five years. And he refused to let Kehoe's husband hug her after he read his statement.

(AP Photo/Matthew Putney, The Waterloo Courier)

Comments

[Kevin]

Forgiveness is not the issue here but responsibility for your actions is. Most killers in this country do no have a lengthy criminal history and some have had no contact with the police before their crime. Some people just snap.

It's time for this lady to forget about the outside world and ocncentrate on here life behind bars. They are do her a disservice if they let the family have contact witn her. Her selfish act should send a signal to the rest of the family that she is not worth the effort.

[aqua]

murderers need hugs too ...

[Wisdom]

If it truly was mental illness then this is harsh. There must be evidence to the contrary.

[roxorz]

I think she looks better now than she did in the last picture we saw her in... Maybe jail's already doing her some good mentally...

[E]

I read some of the articles on this case (abcnews.com was one place) and those indicate that she had planned this for at least a month prior. The prosecution claimed this was premeditated and not the result of mental illness.

[AJ]

Ummm let me think...nope, don't feel one bit sorry for her. You have to think that anyone who commits murder has some mental issues anyway, but not enough to warrant an insanity plea so that fish don't fry sista!

[Brad]

Because Paragons of Motherhood are expected kill their children. Dude.