You've likely heard the news that
Hans Reiser, with his attorney, led police to the body of his murdered wife Nina. Her body was at the Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland Hills, near a trail where hundreds of people have hiked since her disappearance. Local blogs and news organizations are reflecting on this about-face from a man who has long maintained his innocence, like
Brock at SFist.
A commenter there wonders aloud about why authorities agreed to any sort of bargain with Reiser:
Holy
shit, in exchange for a lighter sentence? I can't believe the
authorities agreed. I mean holy crap, they already knew he killed her.
Was having her decomposed body really that important??
Lest you think I'm cruel, if this was my mother, I'd say let the body stay unfound and give this guy the max.
There is a lot to be said for finality in the grief process. There is a reason we have funerals, many of them open casket--because there is something crucial about seeing the dead, or at least being near what they once were, that can complete and help speed the healing in the grief-stricken. The horror of having a family member disappear, possibly murdered, is more pain than I can even imagine. And despite a guilty verdict in the murder trial, her family must still have been tortured by the fact that her body was never found. I'm sure they believed Nina's husband to be responsible, but could they ever truly know what happened? No. And that must have been a whole different kind of hell entirely.
The justice system is not just about punitive acts. The word justice encompasses too many things for that. In this case the authorities may be able to bring a little bit of peace to the people closest to this poor woman. And there is an awful lot of value in that.
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