How long should someone get for murdering their kids?

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by BBC

A mother who admitted killing her three young children at their Edinburgh home has been jailed for 16 years.

Theresa Riggi, 47, had pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility. She was originally charged with murder.

Her eight-year-old twins Austin and Gianluca and their five-year-old sister Cecilia were found dead at their flat in Slateford Road on 4 August 2010.

They were found with stab wounds after a suspected gas explosion at the flat.

The family had moved to Edinburgh from Skene in Aberdeenshire following the break-up of her marriage to the children's father, Pasquale Riggi.

In a statement, read out by a spokesman from Victim Support Scotland outside the High court in Glasgow, Mr Riggi said: "The horrific manner in which my children died will leave an indelible mark on the rest of my life. As a father, my natural instincts were geared towards safeguarding my children from the dangers of this world.
Luke, Cecilia and Austin Riggi Luke, Cecilia and Austin Riggi were killed by their mother

"It pains me to the core that I was unable to protect them from the selfish, brutal and murderous act that ended their lives so unfairly.

"There is no justification for this heinous crime, repeated three times, nor is there any sentence that can provide justice for the overwhelming loss of three lives and the subsequent painful grief and devastation caused to surviving family and friends."

Passing sentence at the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Bracadale said: "The result of these acts is a devastating family tragedy. The father of the children, Pasquale Riggi, and the wider family have been left utterly bereft by the loss of the children.

"And you, who had a genuine but abnormal and possessive love of your children, have lost them and are brought to this sorry pass."

He said that while Riggi's responsibility had been diminished, she was still responsible for her actions.

"The effect of the diminished responsibility is to reduce these crimes from what would have been exceptionally wicked crimes of murder to what are still very serious crimes of culpable homicide," he said.
Pasquale Riggi outside the High Court in Edinburgh Pasquale Riggi said there was no justification for such a heinous crime

"The number and nature of the stab wounds to each child is indicative of a truly disturbing degree of violence which, in order to bring about the deaths of three children, must have been sustained over a significant period of time. It is difficult to envisage the physical commission of such acts."

He added they were "ghastly and grotesque acts".

He sentenced her to 18 years in prison but reduced it by two years due to her early plea. The sentence will be backdated to August last year.

He recommended Riggi be deported at the end of her sentence.

Last month, the High Court in Edinburgh heard California-born Riggi had been a protective mother who was involved in a custody battle with her estranged husband over access to the children.
Phone call

The couple had spoken on the telephone 48 hours before the children were found dead.

During that conversation Riggi asked her husband if he was going to take the children away, to which he replied that she had left him no choice.

Riggi replied: "Say goodbye then" and then hung up the phone.
Theresa Riggi with Cecilia and twins Luke and Austin. (Picture obtained by the BBC) Theresa Riggi killed Cecilia and her brothers Luke and Austin

The court heard how the violinist stabbed each of her children eight times.

Witnesses said they saw Riggi on the second-floor balcony "screaming loudly" before climbing on to the railings. She then intentionally fell head-first from the balcony.

Defence QC Donald Findlay told the court that Riggi had been under a huge amount of stress at the time of the killings and suffered from a collection of personality disorders.

He said she was "wholly devoted" to her children and feared they would be taken away from her.

Mr Findlay said: "However irrational and however insane, that was the world as Theresa Riggi saw it.

"Killing them was the last gift she could give them."

Det Supt Allan Jones, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "This has been a very sad case in which the lives of three beautiful young children were cut tragically short.

"Mr Riggi, who lost his loved ones through their untimely death, and his family and friends are very much in our thoughts.

"It was a difficult inquiry for everyone involved and I would like to commend the professionalism of all those who worked on it."

BBC News - Theresa Riggi jailed for killing her three children

Diminished responsibility? BS. A couple days previous, she told her husband to "Say Goodbye" to the kids, she stabbed each child, and tried to cover it up. 16 years is a joke.

BAH!

Happened just along the road from here too. Some sick sick people in the world

[macaroni tony]

This is terrible

Though I won't pretend to be an expert on the woman's state of mind - whether she was crazy enough to be considered crazy enough to kill "out of love."

But this is just terrible

[kingpin2512]

Death! If thats not an option let her rot in a cell for life!

[MakiSupaStar]

Life in prison with no parole, if death in not an option.

[hover]

As long as it takes for her to experience the sheer terror, and utter betrayal and infinite sadness that her children faced at the moment of their deaths at the hands of their very own mother. Life in prison is too good.

And before some of you chime in, save the whole "can't believe you feel it justified calling for her death, what're you , savages?" nonsense.

[Darth Handsome]

String her up.

[Muzoid]

Death by public stoning.

[Relic]

I cant ever read something like this without my emotions totally taking over...

If pressed - I vote life in prison, that way she can agonize over what she did for a long long long time. Often these nutjobs plan on dying with their kids, she didn't - sometimes death is the easy way out. Let her live a long time ALONE in a tiny cell where she can replay it in her head over and over and over again. I hope she lives to be 120.

[macaroni tony]

I'd vote life

[Chebass88]

How long should she get? Hmmm.

Amount of time to rearrange the schedules of the executioners: approximately 1 week, assuming their HR department is relatively efficient, and the execution could not happen during a conventional shift.

So, she should be held for 1 week.

[Fishheadjoe]

Let her husband have at her for some time, before they string her up.
Fishheadjoe

[MJ5150]

Four life sentences.

-Mike

[C.Linton]

^ This.

[drteeth]

Five minutes alone in a room with her husband and a pair of scissors.

[bassteban]

I can't even begin to understand things getting so bad- in reality or one's mind- that such a thing becomes thinkable, let alone possible. I'd like to be angry at the mother but I'm stuck at *stunned*
Cannot relate...

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by kingpin2512

Death! If thats not an option let her rot in a cell for life!

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

Life in prison with no parole, if death in not an option.

Ive got to agree.

[Deluge Of Sound]

You know, I brought you in this world, and I can take you out. And it don't make no difference to me, I'll make another one look just like you.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

I wonder if she'll be out in less than 10, knowing how micky mousish the legal system can be here (ie, note that she got 2 years less, because she pleaded guilty early . . . ).

Glad to see it isn't just me who thinks this is crazy.

[TomA1234]

She did try to kill herself after killing the kids by jumping off a balcony, so she would want to die, so no executions!
Life (proper life, not those 30 year "life" sentences), no parole, solitary confinement.

[Fassa Albrecht]

Come on guys, this isn't some medieval country. Wanting her dead is simply wrong and sick, and shows a profound lack of thought.

From George Orwell:

Originally Posted by essay, Revenge Is Sour

It is absurd to blame any German or Austrian Jew for getting his own back on the Nazis. Heaven knows what scores this particular man may have had to wipe out; very likely his whole family had been murdered; and after all, even a wanton kick to a prisoner is a very tiny thing compared with the outrages committed by the Hitler régime. But what this scene, and much else that I saw in Germany, brought home to me was that the whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish daydream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also.

Who would not have jumped for joy, in 1940, at the thought of seeing S.S. officers kicked and humiliated? But when the thing becomes possible, it is merely pathetic and disgusting. It is said that when Mussolini's corpse was exhibited in public, an old woman drew a revolver and fired five shots into it, exclaiming, 'Those are for my five sons!' It is the kind of story that the newspapers make up, but it might be true. I wonder how much satisfaction she got out of those five shots, which, doubtless, she had dreamed years earlier of firing. The condition of her being able to get close enough to Mussolini to shoot at him was that he should be a corpse.

In short, she's now a prisoner, she's lost her freedom, her family and likely her husband, she's likely to now spend the rest of her life in a small concrete cell. That's enough. None of you would have thought of doing anything to her whilst she was free, so why now? As George Orwell points out, the thought of killing or harming her is only a reality when the intended target of your wish is diminished in power, helpless. And then that supposed act of justice merely becomes pathetic and rotten in its own right.