Justice For Junny

Sometimes I meet people on this crime and justice beat who just take my breath away. I want to tell you about one.

Her name is Vicki Rios-Martinez. She's the mother of six, grandmother to 12 and the survivor of a murder so heinous you may never forget the details. From that unspeakable crime Rios-Martinez found the courage to fight for a change in the law.

In short, her young son, Junny, was kidnapped, sexually molested and murdered 17 years ago. It was only recently that Vicki and her husband watched their son's killer be put to death at the Starke, Florida State Prison.

Now, I've stood inside a death chamber but I've never witnessed an execution. I don't think I'd have the stomach for it. But Vicki and her family did. 17 years after the most horrible day of her life there she was sitting in the gallery of the execution chamber, wearing a T-shirt with Junny's picture on it, hoping the death of a monster named Mark Dean Schwab would somehow bring her a long sought conclusion.

Instead she found herself contrasting how her 11 year old son died with how Schwab passed.

"The procedure was very, very peaceful. His eyes shut, his jaw went slack and he never woke up again. There was no suffering for Mark Schwab," she told me.

In other words, Schawb's death was nothing like her little Junny's.

Junny Rios-Martinez was everybody's buddy. Outgoing, athletic, handsome. He was five feet tall and weighed just 76 pounds. His picture appeared in a local Florida newspaper after he won a kite flying contest and that's all it took to arouse Schwab. He posed as a reporter who wanted to do a follow up interview with Junny and within weeks he'd cunningly groomed both the boy and the parents to trust him.

Here's the part that's so unbelievable. Schwab was out of prison just one month when he first contacted the Rios-Martinez family. He had a history of violent child sex attacks and both his previous victims were about Junny's age. Schwab faced the possibility of life in prison but he was sentenced to serve only eight years for viciously raping a 12 year old. He served less than half that and got out in just 3 years. He got no psychological treatment or rehab in prison. He was enrolled in a sex offender treatment program at the time he began to openly stalk Junny. A lot of good that did.

After they found little Junny's naked body in a footlocker, carelessly thrown into a drainage ditch, there was a trial. Schwab was found guilty and sentenced to death. And then the penalty phase was drawn out by appeal after appeal for a decade and a half. During that time Vicki and her family grieved and tried to heal and prayed for justice.

"We discovered there is only one page in all the law books for victim's families," Vicki said. "All the rest of that law book stuff is for protection of the criminals."

So Vicki took it upon herself to add some pages to the Florida law books. She and her family won passage of the "Junny Rios-Martinez, Jr., Act″, which prohibits those convicted of sexual battery from receiving early release.

Theirs is a large, loving clan and they worked hard to achieve the American Dream. Vicki and her husband run a popular hair salon. He also works at the Parks Department and plays in a band. Vicki, who says she was always against the death penalty until Junny's murder, now gives victim impact speeches to law enforcement groups.

So why, after 17 years and finally finding a happy routine in life again, did they want to watch the execution of their son's murderer? "For closure," Vicki says. But she admits she came away feeling short changed.

"We give a convict this peaceful passage. It wasn't scary ... he didn't have to face us," because when the curtain opened between the death chamber and the gallery Schwab was already sedated and strapped to the gurney. The whole thing was over in less than 15 minutes.

"If you were the victim (of that man) you would face him and look into his eyes at the very last moment. You know, the eyes are the soul. They robbed us of looking into his soul. Maybe he would have wanted to say something to us," she said as her voice trailed off.

Vicki Rios-Martinez just recently lost her beloved aunt and her father. And she wishes, without a hint of bitterness in her voice, that they would have had such a peaceful way to leave this earth. "We give it to the criminal," she says again ... "but not to the suffering." Nothing for the victim.

Diane Dimond's Web site is: www.DianeDimond.net - She can be reached at [e-mail]

Comments

[1will]

Over the last few years I've come to disagree with the death penalty. My disagreement is not based on any belief in the sanctity of a criminal's life or execution being inhumane. I couldn't care less if convicted killers face harsh punishment.....if they are guilty.
Over the last several years we have seen convicted inmate after inmate walk free due to DNA evidence. While I have to believe most in our prisons deserve to be there I'm also realistic enough to know there are innocent people behind bars. We have seen Nifong's little crusade to win votes in NC. Imagine if those students were poor and could not afford a good defense. We have seen faulty work done at crime labs and false DNA reports convicting people. We have even seen the FBI crime lab falsifying DNA evidence (look back to the Clinton years, I can't remember the name of the woman in charge at the time). My question is if you cannot even trust DNA evidence then what can you trust?
The burden of proof needs to be much higher than it currently is before we execute prisoners. Yes, we do see the occasional case in which we get DNA evidence, video and a confession but that is rare. In those cases I have no trouble with an execution. Unfortunately these cases are the exception to the rule.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

1will - I've never been for the death penalty. But recently when the US Supreme Court ruled that a child rapist shouldn't get the death penalty I began to wonder, "Really? If not THEM, then who?"
I have to admit my mind gets in a muddle about it all ... but basically I remain convinced that state sponsored killing is still.....killing. ~ DD

[Lilybart]

So what do you want? Should we torture them first, before the needle?

Sexual predators should be locked up, really forever since there is no way to cure them, but going on about the death penalty really wasnt' your point?

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

My point, Lilybart, was that there are some people who have horrendous crosses to bear in life and they maintain with more grace than I think I could ever muster.
I wrote this column because I marveled at Vicki Rio-Martinez's perseverance in life. And I was surprised that something she'd waited 17 years for - the execution of her son's killer - left her empty - not with the anticipated feeling of closure. ~ DD

[ldavis24]

A perfect example why the death penalty is wrong.

Revenge will not bring satisfaction or closure as this poor woman figured out.

Like you reported it left her feeling empty, she truly believed seeing the death of her son's murderer would bring peace to her life. If she hadn't waited 17 for that to occur she could have been focusing on finding peace without revenge. Regardless of what people may label it the death penalty is all about revenge, justice is a pretty way of saying taking revenge for the atrocity committed.
Revenge has never been right.