Petite Church Suits

It was August 20, 1987. The Prosecutor requested the Court to sentence of 23 years. Jeffrey Libby old to 50 years for the murder of his grandfather in a fit of rage. The judge, now deceased, was sentenced to 60 years, saying: "There is nothing in this case, which can be considered as a mitigating circumstance."

On April 23, 2010, the Governor of Maine Council on Executive Clemency rejected Libby's request for a clemency hearing, despite a growing number of distinguished supporters. Guidelines for the hearing of an application for commutation are that 50% of the sentence be served. Libby has served for 23 ½ years. unknown to the Court at his sentencing, but documented in the petition to the Council Executive clemency was that Jeff had been sexually abused by a priest at CT 13 and 14 years. Forensic reports of distinguished psychologists in Maine and Connecticut clearly paved the sexual abuse to murder nine years later.

How the Court to that conclusion in the fate of a 23-years. Old kid, did a forensic examination? As the trier of fact, the evidence has contributed to a term of 22 years longer than the average murder sentence in Maine and 10 years older than that requested by the prosecution? Screaming from the depths of shame was so perverse that the defendant was not able to connect the dots of sexual violence to murder.

Adolescent Psychiatry, a publication of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry and Analytic Press, has published a study in 2004 of the effects of clergy sexual abuse on male victims. On average, male victims have waited 18 years before seeking legal or psychological assistance. Of the 26 men studied, 85% were clinically depressed, 88% participated in substance abuse, 55% showed symptoms of suicidal tendencies, 54% showed signs of loss of spirituality, 73% had symptoms of sexual dysfunction including confusion about sexual orientation.

Rage is a common emotion experienced by men and boys who were molested by priests. Fantasies of killing their abusers, 50% of their power over their victims, regularly surface in the study. There is no path to healing for the victim. Parents prefer to believe the church on their son. In 1987, when the conviction of Libby, the church and the Vatican have been spending fortunes to defend himself in court. Children learn to believe that a priest is God's emissary on earth would assign sexual abuse to a rejection of God and all other powers. Libby, recently reviewed and deemed psychologically "well adjusted, stable and ready for release, in 2009, has settled his civil suit against the Archdiocese Connecticut.

Jeff Libby is now serving a just sentence for his crime but more time for a priest who was not prosecuted. For the State of Maine to fail to take into account so odious as a mitigating circumstance of being complicit in the violence.