Ham on Wry Award-Revisited

Phillip and Nancy Garrido-Jaycee Dugard's Abductors

Due to some difficulties with Friday's post, this blog didn't appear on Facebook.  Bear with me readers.  These two received exactly what they deserved within the limits of the law despite Nancy Garrido's defense attorney stating that she really thought of Jaycee and her two daughters as family.  No matter what Garrido's feelings, she failed to protect an innocent 11-year-old from sexual assault and 18 years of captivity.  Phillip Garrido can offer no valid defense for his reprehensible act.  Read the orginal post that follows.

Ham on Wry proudly presents this week's award to Jaycee Dugard for her courage and conviction during her eighteen-year hell in captivity. Yesterday, the judge sentenced Phillip Garrido to 431 years to life, the maximum sentence allowed, and Nancy Garrido to 36 years to life for her role in the kidnapping and repeated rape of Jaycee during her imprisonment in the backyard of their home in Antioch, CA. Ms. Dugard refused to attend the hearing, writing in a statement read by her mother, ""I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your presence." In saying that her abductors had stolen her life, she expressed her feelings about spending18 years of her life held against her will.

No amount of time in prison can possibly restore what Jaycee lost when she was kidnapped at the age of 11. No graduations, proms, parties, family picnics and vactions, or holiday celebrations occurred with her birth family there for support. Instead, she bore two children fathered by her rapist. The first came when Jaycee was just 14 and the second 4 years later. The worst part of this crime was revealed during the trial. It could have been prevented because Garrido was on parole for kidnapping and rape when he abducted Dugard. According to the district attorney, Garrido should never has been released from prison.

No room for humor exists in writing aboutt this heinous crime, so readers will notice the absence of wryness in the post. Although Nancy Garrido did not sexually assault Jaycee Dugard, she aided and abetted her husband. He even left for a month, giving her ample opportunity to summon help for Jaycee, but she didn't. Some readers might wonder why Jaycee didn't try to escape as she got older. By then, she was so thoroughly controlled emotionally that she saw no way out, and, once she had children, she worried about their welfare. Now that the trial has ended, may Ms. Dugard thrive in her freedom from terror. I wonder how Phillip Garrido will fare in prison. He'll have many years of his own hell on earth, of that I'm certain.