Punishment enough
Regardless of blame, I think we can all agree that an 11-year-old girl dying of hypothermia on Christmas Day is a senseless tragedy [“Father charged with murder in Idaho girl’s death in snow,” News, Dec. 30].
However, it was clearly an accident. The father of these children undoubtedly made a stupid decision, but I don’t think there was any malice involved.
This man has lost his daughter forever. He will have to live with the guilt of knowing that his negligent actions caused her death for the rest of his life. He will have to live with the burden of blame from society, and very likely the blame from his son and the children’s mother as well. That is punishment enough, and if it’s not enough for the angry mob, how about something more appropriate, like reckless endangerment? Not second-degree murder.
This was not a “murder.” The punishment should fit the crime.
— Shannon Kimball, Edmonds