Willow
07-04-2005, 01:05 PM
Homolka fears life on the outside
Angela Mulholland, CTV.ca News Staff
Karla Homolka will have a tough, if not impossible, time fading into anonymity following her release from 12 years in prison.
With court-ordered restrictions on her freedom that will compel the notorious killer to inform authorities of her whereabouts at all times, she will have difficulty hiding from public view.
What's more, Homolka has told Corrections officials that she is worried that she will not be able to remain safe from the many citizens who have vowed to make her life hell.
"I am convinced that some individuals wish to render a public service by assassinating me," she wrote recently in a petition to a Quebec Superior Court.
"As far as I know, nothing has been done to safeguard my security after my release from prison, and the thought of being relentlessly pursued, hunted down and followed when I won't have any protection makes me fear for my life."
Montreal's Elizabeth Fry Society has said they will be there to help Homolka with her integration into society, as they would with any other female inmate making the transition into regular life.
Now bilingual, Homolka appears to want to try to live a quiet life in Quebec. Christine Champagne, a clinical director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, says "people in Quebec have an open mind" and "can give a second chance to people."
"They believe in rehabilitation," she says.
According to a psychiatric evaluation released during hearings in early June, Homolka sees Quebec as "a separate country" where it would be easy for her to blend in.
"She believed that few people in Quebec had heard of her and it would be easy for her to blend in to society," said the 2000 report by Dr. Robin Menzies.
"She based this on her experiences at Joliette, where she had been accepted for the person she was rather than what she had done."
Indeed, few in Quebec paid much attention to the St. Catharines, Ont., native before media attention was ramped up in recent weeks ahead of her release. Only a small group of curious turned up at the courthouse for the hearings on her release conditions.
'Deal with the devil'
Of course, many Canadians wish Homolka weren't getting out at all and that her stay in prison could have been as long as her former husband, Paul Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
But in what was probably the most contentious plea bargain in Canadian history, Homolka's date for release was decided 12 years ago.
In return for agreeing to testify at the murder trial of her husband, Homolka pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for her role in the killings of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14. She also admitted to a role in the drugging and death of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy.
Of course, many Canadians believe Homolka's "sweetheart deal" should never have been made. Before Homolka had Bernardo arrested in February 1993, for beating her black and blue with a flashlight, Bernardo hid videotapes of the torture and rapes of French and Mahaffy in the ceiling above the bathroom in their St. Catharines house.
Police failed to find the tapes during a 71-day search of the house. Bernardo's lawyers entered the house on May 6, 1993, and left with the six tapes but didn't hand them over to police. Within a week, Homolka -- who knew about the tapes but not where they were -- had struck her plea bargain with the Crown.
It was not until September 1994, after Bernardo's original lawyer Ken Murray quit the case, that his new lawyer handed the tapes over to police. A year later, Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was later declared a dangerous offender, making it unlikely he will ever leave prison.
Murray was later tried on obstruction of justice charges, but acquitted. He was also charged with professional misconduct by the Law Society of Upper Canada but the charge was later withdrawn.
Michael Code, the former assistant deputy attorney-general who directed the plea-bargain negotiations with Homolka's lawyer, says Homolka's testimony was still a critical component of the case against Bernardo, with or without the tapes.
That's because the tapes do not depict the murders of Kristen French or Leslie Mahaffy. Without that, prosecutors still considered Homolka's testimony essential to convicting Bernardo.
While many Canadians accused prosecutors of incompetence in handling the Homolka case, when former Supreme Court Justice Patrick Galligan examined the deal in 1996, he deemed it fair for both sides.
His "Report to the Attorney General of Ontario on Certain Matters Relating to Karla Homolka" concluded that the bargain, while distasteful, was legitimate and "driven by sheer necessity."
Angela Mulholland, CTV.ca News Staff
Karla Homolka will have a tough, if not impossible, time fading into anonymity following her release from 12 years in prison.
With court-ordered restrictions on her freedom that will compel the notorious killer to inform authorities of her whereabouts at all times, she will have difficulty hiding from public view.
What's more, Homolka has told Corrections officials that she is worried that she will not be able to remain safe from the many citizens who have vowed to make her life hell.
"I am convinced that some individuals wish to render a public service by assassinating me," she wrote recently in a petition to a Quebec Superior Court.
"As far as I know, nothing has been done to safeguard my security after my release from prison, and the thought of being relentlessly pursued, hunted down and followed when I won't have any protection makes me fear for my life."
Montreal's Elizabeth Fry Society has said they will be there to help Homolka with her integration into society, as they would with any other female inmate making the transition into regular life.
Now bilingual, Homolka appears to want to try to live a quiet life in Quebec. Christine Champagne, a clinical director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, says "people in Quebec have an open mind" and "can give a second chance to people."
"They believe in rehabilitation," she says.
According to a psychiatric evaluation released during hearings in early June, Homolka sees Quebec as "a separate country" where it would be easy for her to blend in.
"She believed that few people in Quebec had heard of her and it would be easy for her to blend in to society," said the 2000 report by Dr. Robin Menzies.
"She based this on her experiences at Joliette, where she had been accepted for the person she was rather than what she had done."
Indeed, few in Quebec paid much attention to the St. Catharines, Ont., native before media attention was ramped up in recent weeks ahead of her release. Only a small group of curious turned up at the courthouse for the hearings on her release conditions.
'Deal with the devil'
Of course, many Canadians wish Homolka weren't getting out at all and that her stay in prison could have been as long as her former husband, Paul Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
But in what was probably the most contentious plea bargain in Canadian history, Homolka's date for release was decided 12 years ago.
In return for agreeing to testify at the murder trial of her husband, Homolka pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter for her role in the killings of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14. She also admitted to a role in the drugging and death of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy.
Of course, many Canadians believe Homolka's "sweetheart deal" should never have been made. Before Homolka had Bernardo arrested in February 1993, for beating her black and blue with a flashlight, Bernardo hid videotapes of the torture and rapes of French and Mahaffy in the ceiling above the bathroom in their St. Catharines house.
Police failed to find the tapes during a 71-day search of the house. Bernardo's lawyers entered the house on May 6, 1993, and left with the six tapes but didn't hand them over to police. Within a week, Homolka -- who knew about the tapes but not where they were -- had struck her plea bargain with the Crown.
It was not until September 1994, after Bernardo's original lawyer Ken Murray quit the case, that his new lawyer handed the tapes over to police. A year later, Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was later declared a dangerous offender, making it unlikely he will ever leave prison.
Murray was later tried on obstruction of justice charges, but acquitted. He was also charged with professional misconduct by the Law Society of Upper Canada but the charge was later withdrawn.
Michael Code, the former assistant deputy attorney-general who directed the plea-bargain negotiations with Homolka's lawyer, says Homolka's testimony was still a critical component of the case against Bernardo, with or without the tapes.
That's because the tapes do not depict the murders of Kristen French or Leslie Mahaffy. Without that, prosecutors still considered Homolka's testimony essential to convicting Bernardo.
While many Canadians accused prosecutors of incompetence in handling the Homolka case, when former Supreme Court Justice Patrick Galligan examined the deal in 1996, he deemed it fair for both sides.
His "Report to the Attorney General of Ontario on Certain Matters Relating to Karla Homolka" concluded that the bargain, while distasteful, was legitimate and "driven by sheer necessity."