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The news article chosen by me discusses murder and rape committed as an act of violence against an innocent woman. The crime covers one of the most serious acts of violence that can be committed against humanity because it is a crime which goes against decency and humanity. According to the story, the rapist murdered a woman and then murdered her, while dumping her body at a distance from the beach. Rape is defined as sexual assault against a person, which can involve sexual intercourse and sexual penetration of any sort to a non-consenting party, against their will. Forcing someone into sexual intercourse is basically rape. Therefore, trying to get physical and using violence for that sake is also considered as rape. Rape is a crime, and it has serious repercussions for the rapist. Attaining sexual intercourse with a person who is incapacitated threatened to be killed, or one who is unable to provide consent due to illness or injury is also considered sexual assault. Rape can also result in injuries, physical and psychological, which can be disastrous for the raped individual. If the injuries are severe, and no help is sustained, they can take a person’s life. Murder is the crime of killing another person without any justification or valid reason especially on the basis of revenge. Murder is thus a crime because it is a form of unlawful killing that can unjustly cost the life of another person. Murder, if proven true has very harsh punishments in every society of the world because killing other people is an inexcusable crime. Hence, these two crimes form the basis of the chosen news story for this paper. In American society, rape and murder stand as serious offenses especially if one side of the party is unarmed and innocent. There are serious punishments for the offender in all the cases of rape and murder.
The crime chosen by me occurred earlier this year in January when an American tourist and anesthesiologist, aged 39 was visiting a beach in Grenada where she was raped and found dead by the island police. As per the woman’s husband, they were strolling on the beach in St. David, when a man came up to them, asking for money (Thomson, 2016). He has been asking other people for money as well. Since the couple had no money on them, the man became insistent and followed them on the beach. In order to escape the man, her husband left his wife at the beach and pursued to the hotel so he could get the money for him (Thomson, 2016). As it happened, when he returned, he could not find his wife. Colker was searched for hours before her body was found near the shores further away from the beach. She was dead and apparently her skull was shattered (Thomson, 2016). The matter when into court, when the police got involved and began an investigation. The husband identified the man who was bothering them and was allegedly responsible for his wife’s murder (Thomson, 2016).
A 27-year-old man named David Benjamin was held responsible for the murder. The police arrested the man, and he turned in accepting all the accusations. The initial investigation began with a thorough DNA test and evidence-gathering hunt. The police had their doubt regarding the dead woman’s condition, and they were going to probe further into the matter. According to the police commissioner, Colker had been sexually assaulted before she was murdered by Benjamin (Thomson, 2016). The pathology report sustained after Colker’s autopsy assured that she was raped, and the DNA test proved that Benjamin was the rapist (Thomson, 2016). The initial reports of the autopsy showed only the death of the woman by a shattered skull and asphyxia, as they were only reporting the cause of death. The murder and rape of the woman shown in the news article is an exact description of these two crimes as mentioned above. She was being bothered by the stranger, and when she was alone on the beach, he made a move on her. After knowing she would report him for having raped her, he probably killed her so that he might avoid getting caught. What the man did not know was the husband and other people on the beach had seen him and that the forensic reports would put his life in jeopardy.
There are always strange people moving around people who seemingly are unaware of what dangers might lurk among them. Benjamin was a person who targeted such vulnerable people for his own gains, but he had not been successful because of the vigilance of the police department. In 2013, Benjamin had been convicted of rape, but he had been released after a short time served (Thomson, 2016). However, he went to the extreme in 2016, when he planned to get his hands on an American tourist and luck planned to disfavor him. He was caught and was sentenced to life in prison. The incidences of rape and murder are not exactly on the rise in the Caribbean. However, this happened to be one of the recent and most shocking incidences to have occurred in the islands in a long time (Mills, 2016). Tourists are an easy target for many stalkers and troublemakers because they are usually unaware of the whereabouts of places and cannot easily go and ask for help at the right place at the right time (Mills, 2016). The Caribbean islands have been known to become unsafe quite a few times for tourists (Mills, 2016). On January 17, a British expatriate Rose Wyatt was murdered brutally while she was walking her dog on the island of Dominica (Mills, 2016). It was only 7 days after her death that Colker was killed as she was walking with her husband on the shoreline in Grenada. Rose had been killed by a person with a machete, and she had not sustained the injury. Her death was somewhat similar to Jessica Colker’s as she too had been killed with some sort of weapon (Mills, 2016). Benjamin had been a troublemaker and alleged rapist because he had raped a 14-year-old school girl recently before the murders. He lived at a convenient distance from the beaches, and he was easily able to eye and catch his predators (Thomson, 2016).
After being confirmed as the rapist and murderer responsible for the death of Jessica Colker, Benjamin was taken into police custody. The initial reports had already held him responsible as the culprit because the Grenada police had been viewing him taking money from the tourists on the beach and been a bother to many of them. Therefore, according to the law, Benjamin was liable to the death penalty, which is practiced in Grenada for all violent crimes, including murder and federal offenses (Pivotte, 2016). However, in the case of Benjamin’s trial, he had committed non-capital murder. In Grenada, murder carries the death penalty if only it is capital murder, which means that a particular kind of person is targeted for the murder. (Pivotte, 2016). Colker being a tourist did not fall into the category. Therefore, her case did not lead to the death penalty, and rather it sentenced a lifetime of imprisonment to Benjamin. As far as situational crime prevention is concerned, Grenada is considered to be one of the safest islands in the Caribbean for the tourists (Pivotte, 2016). Nevertheless, the police and tourist authorities do warn the tourists not to go to secluded and isolated areas because of the danger of potential harmful people waiting to prey on strangers on their lands. The police have issued a warning to tourists not to travel alone at night and go to the portion of the beaches that are particularly isolated (Mills, 2016). These preliminary warnings are enough to warn the tourists not to get into trouble if they are new to the place and have no means of self-defense on them. However, with the strict laws governing murder and rape in the country, Grenada is doing well with the situation which makes it one of the most peaceful islands in the Caribbean (Mills, 2016).
Conclusively, the chosen case is the recent murder of the American from Atlanta, Jessica Colker, a 39-year-old woman who was murdered and raped in Grenada by a 27-year-old child rapist David Benjamin. Colker’s dead body was found by her husband who found her lost after he left her with Benjamin to get money for him. The forensic report confirmed sexual assault, and the DNA evidence reported Benjamin responsible. He had killed her too, shattering her skull after raping her. The tourist laws are not very strict in the country, except for general warnings. However, the punishments for crimes are strict which offer much deterrence to troublesome people in Grenada.
References
Mills, Jen. (2016). “Murder in Paradise: Fears there is someone stalking tourists in the
The Caribbean.” Metro.co.uk. Retrieved from http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/31/murder-in-paradise-fears-there-is-someone-stalking-british-people-in-the-carribean-5654313/
Pivotte, Dionnel. (2016). “Capital vs. Non-capital murder.” Now Grenada. Retrieved from
http://nowgrenada.com/2014/07/capital-vs-non-capital-murder/
Thomson, Paul. (2016). “EXCLUSIVE: Pictured - the child rapist charged with murder of
An American tourist on the beach after 'holding her hostage then raping and killing her while husband ran to get money.” Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3419259/Child-rapist-charged-murder-American-tourist-killed-paradise-beach-walked-husband-NOT-face-death-penalty.html
