My mother-in-law scares me.

So I'm watching this on MSNBC right now. I caught it a couple weeks ago, more than halfway into it. I'd heard of this case and the McMartin Daycare case, and others over the years, and always wondered how in the world people could be so knee-jerk reactionary... How can people be so overtaken with histrionics as to ignore legitimate investigation? I was just baffled at how easy it is for some people to become so overwhelmed with hysteria.

And then my mother-in-law astounded me. We were watching some news segments and a story about Sandra Cantu and Melissa Huckaby comes on. For those who don't know, Sandra Cantu was an eight year old murder victim and Melissa Huckaby is her accused killer, who has as of yet not undergone a trial. The segment was brief and had mentioned only that Melissa Huckaby had been charged; the DA offered no examples of evidence or any particular reason for charging Huckaby in that segment, but my mother-in-law just started yelling "KILL HER! KILL HER RIGHT NOW!". I just sat there, almost jaw-dropped, and said, "But she hasn't even had a trial yet and we have no idea if she's guilty or innocent, and we haven't even seen any evidence against her. We can't execute people without trying them in court..."

She began a rant about a completely unrelated child abduction/molestation case from the 1970s, and rambled feverishly about immediately executing accused child molesters. Her logic is that since a person is brought on charges, "something must have happened". End of story, bring out the electric chair or the guillotine or the noose.

God, I hope she never serves on a jury.

http://jenkcentral.myminicity.com/