"I accidently murdered my best friend"-should she be in jail for murder?

[Slaying_Spuffy]

I recently read an article in Cosmo Girl! about two girls named Elizabeth and Heather who 'wanted to do everything together. Including kill themselves.'
This is the article put into my own words.


Elizabeth was a gothic, depressed individual. She wore black every day and decorated her room with pictures of grave yards and whatnot. Her parents always wanted to be with her. From eating at the dinner table to watching TV to going shopping. But she says their love was more "suffocating" then "supporting"

Heather was an average girl with a troubled past. Her parents, who were all sorts of messed up, died before Heather hit age 10. Then she was sent to live with another relative for some years before being sent to her grandparents. When Heather was little, she was even raped by her uncle.
Elizabeth was a jock. Especially when it came to track. She had almost 25 track awards. Durring track season of 2001, she met Heather, whom she had always thought of as kind of a geek. The two bonded and hung out more and more and come the next year, they were inseperatable. They were eachother's confidonts. Eventually, Heather began to dress like Elizabeth; all black all the time.


Heather's friends didn't like the changes that Elizabeth "caused". One day, Elizabeth discovered that 3 of Heather's friends were planning to beat her up. She ran to the train tracks to gather her thoughts. After returning from the train tracks, she called Heather. The two girls talked for hours and finally, for the first time, Elizabeth told Heather she wanted to die and was shocked when Heather agreed. Then Heather bluntly asked Elizabeth if she wanted to kill herself with her. Elizabeth agreed.

On August 26, 2003, the girls divided up a pile of Tylenol, Tylenol PM, and another pill I can't remember. After taking to dosage, they fell asleep and woke up puking. Their first attempt at suicide had failed and they stayed home the next day ill. This is when they planned their second attempt; and it would be fool proof!

On August 29 (my sisters birthday!), Heather arrived at Elizabeth's shortly after her parents left for work. They took a gun from Elizabeth's step dads gun closet and went into Elizabeth's bedroom. Their plan was to be dead by 8:10--when the school bell rang. While sitting on her bed, listening to music, the two girls thought of how this would be done. Should one girl shoot the other then shoot herself, or should they put their heads together and use one bullett?

"We passed to gun back and forth, each of us pointing it at our own head. But we'd always chicken out." Elizabeth remembers. Finally the clock hit 8:10. This is when Elizabeth claims Heather said "I'm not going to school today. I'm going to die"

Heather put her forehead to the gun and ripped it away from Elizabeth. In a split second, the gun went off.

"I just remember screaming 'no, no you can't be dead! Come back right now!'" Elizabeth says, her eyes brimming with tears. After an hour of sobbing next to Heather's dead body, Elizabeth called her mother.

Now, at age 19, Elizabeth has served 21 months of her 20 years in prison for the murder of her bestfriend. She's working for a reduced sentence, but her first parol hearing isn't until November of 2006.

Elizabeth no longer wants to die; as Heather is her constant reminder that suicide is never the answer. It only causes more pain then it solves. Elizabeth wants to help other girls learn this, too. She's focusing on mainly poetry and school (she just got her GED).




So, with all that said (and that was just what I can remember from the article), I'm interested in hearing all of your thoughts on this.

 

[Amber Benson]

Yea, that's a pretty hard topic to debate... I mean, when I first heard of this, I had mixed feelings... Firstly, and I know it sounds bad, but I don't think she should be in prison, rather some mental institution... There must be more behind the story for her to be convicted of murder, because that story there doesn't convey that, or atleast, not 20 years in prison for murder... Idk about that...

Anyway, then I really felt bad for the girl that didn't die... She has to live with, basically, what her best-friend did because of her... She brought it up first, and she basically turned her into the suicidal type (atleast, from the sounds of the story... it could be possible that she was "like that" before).

 

[Hostile_17]

I.... Kind of.... Agree with Amber Benson. Although I think the 'law' has been making some poor choices lately (old, personal history), if she was a convicted murderer there's gotta be a bigger story.

But I also don't think it was completley her fault. Heather obviously felt suicidal for years and the other girl just braught it out of her. Plus, doesn't it say Heather was the one to ask her friend to commit suicide? Or did I get the names mixed?

If I've learned anything from my family history (my father, to be exact) is that a person can't force others to do something. They do it on their own. Heather just sounds like a girl who had friends that didn't quite understand her, a family that didn't quite treat her right, and one who is lucky enough to find a best friend who will absorb her troubles... I don't know. I'm torn in half. Amber, you make a good point. Let me think about this.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I don't know that someone else could really convince you that you want to kill yourself. Maybe that's just the person I am, someone with a strong will to make life as great as I know it should be for me, but I can't see blaming the other girl.

I definitely think 20 of her best years behind bars is too much...

 

[eponinethen]

I agree with Cordelia. No matter how much you can influence someone else or make them think stuff, it can never be fair to totally blame you for someone else's suicide. I mean that girl would probably already be so filled with guilt that she can't bear it, I don't think lots of years in prison would do her any good, that is not what she needs. Not that anyone really needs prison, not that that really does anyone any good but she's probably not at all a danger to society or anything (possibly to herself though but..).

 

[Feigenbaum]

The woman should not be behind bars, should she be in a padded room!

If the story is believable, then the girls should've been showing suicidal tendencies for years, and people should have picked up on that. The school should have contacted the parents before the whole hour went by of Elizabeth staring at Heather's dead body after it happened. The school would have wanted to know where the girls were,considering they were not in school.

Who knows? If the story is believable, then the girl needs counseling. If the story is just a cover-up for killing somebody, then yeah, she deserves to be in jail. Only the mind of Elizabeth and the soul of Heather knows.

 

[Hostile_17]

I'm not sure I believe Elizabeth murdered Heather. I mean, if they were as good as friends as that article claims. Besides, my school usually waits until after lunch time to contact the parents. I agree with Cordelia. Elizabeth may have changed Heather's sence of style, and she may have influenced her in lots of other ways. But no way can she be held completley responsible for Heather's death. Heather had to have been having suicidal thoughts and feelings lost before Elizabeth came around. I mean, if it's as easy as "Do you wanna kill yourself with me?" "Uhhhhhhhh Okay!" Granted, a real friend wouldn't ask her friend to give up her life, but that's a different story. To get to my point, I don't think Elizabeth should be held 100% liable for Heather's death. If the article is right, Heather said "I'm going to die", Heather put her head to the gun, and Heather ripped it out of her friends hand and pulled the trigger.

It sounds like it was Heather's own free will. Elizabeth never put the gun to her head and told her to kill herself. But who knows. Like epo said, only Elizabeth and Heather know for sure.