Jonathan Zarate will NOT face the death penalty

Slaying-dismembering: No capital case:
Excuse my language butâ?¦fucking New Jersey.

Jonathan Zarate, the New Jersey teen who killed and dismembered 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, will not be facing the death penaltyâ?¦

On the day a grand jury handed up murder indictments against Jonathan Zarate, 19, and his brother, James, 16, Prosecutor Michael M. Rubbinaccio said he could not seek a capital case because the crime's most-heinous aspects occurred after Jennifer Parks was dead.

Citing state law, Rubbinaccio said prosecutors must establish the murder was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman ... and that it involved torture" to allow him to seek the death penalty.

"Certainly you can describe what took place after the homicide as being all those things," Rubbinaccio said, referring to the dismemberment. "But that is not evidence of an aggravating factor that would trigger a capital case litigation."

I don't fault Mr. Rubbicano. I'm sure he did what he could. But the New Jersey law is so incredibly wrong on this. There is no justice for Jennifer Parks without the execution of Jonathan Zarate.

Mrs. Parks, I know you're reading this and I am truly sorry about this.

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Jonathan Zarate will NOT face the death penalty...

Jonathan Zarate is a New Jersy teen that killed and dismembered his neighbor, 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, and tried to dump her body in the Passaic River. Due to New Jersey law he will not be facing the death penalty....

#1 Anonymous (Homepage) on 2007-01-03 14:02 (Reply)

:mad: what the hell is wrong with this damn world and its dumb ass politics. i think that it is not far what they did to my cousin and are they are really gonna get is a slap on the damn wrist when they really need to have done to them what they did to her. because they we get what they disserve one way or another.

#2 jens family on 2007-01-05 14:35 (Reply)

i know you all want what i want but the law is what is is an nothing we say or do will change it.

#3 laurie parks on 2007-01-05 22:38 (Reply)

I understand the prosecutor's intention of seeking a sure conviction and not risking it on the disputable question of degree of heinousness ... but I live in the same county, I have family in the same neighborhood, and I have been haunted by this daily since it first came out.
I have worked with troubled adolescents, and disturbed is one thing, cruel is another. I have worked as a clinical casemanager with chronically mentally ill homeless adults, those who lived out their lives in Greystone, and again, crazy is one thing, criminal is another.
I can't say this out loud in the workplace, but sociopaths should be identified young - and I think it's probably in-the-bones by age 12, if not even earlier - and taken out into a field and shot.

#4 keb on 2007-01-09 22:03 (Reply)

I believe in eye for an eye and toth for a damn tooth and I feel that if someone is stupid enough to kill someone and then even more stupid to get caught in the damn act and I don't think it is right that they can kill someone as sweet as jen was and they get a roof over their damn head, 3 damn meals a day, hot showers, medical care,and all that that other shit mainly when they killed someone who didn't disserve to die and it pisses me off that they get all that shit and the fact that hard working people like me and my families taxes pay for them to get that shit too when they out and murder someone. the government should be putting that money to better use then that there are a lot of other things are that are a hell of a lot more worht it then that like for instants helping under privledged children go to college and the homless and all that. i do wanna say if it had not been for all this i don't think i would have ever figured out what the hell i wanted to do with my life but since jen was killed it has really made me think about it and i know what it is and that is to get the scumbags like the kids who killed jen off the damn streets and make the world we live in better for everyone.

#5 jens family on 2007-01-13 04:47 (Reply)

This is absolutely crazy. This young boy is cruel and hides himself behind Bipolar Disease! I sure don't believe that he is crazy! What is wrong with NJ? Why no capital Case? being is jail is confortable for them. Meanwhile Jennifer is no longer with us...It's not fair that the zarate's are still alive and poor Jeniffer is gone. Are the zarate brothers saing the truth about not tourturing this young girl while she was alive? Who knows for sure what really happened that night?

#6 anonymous2007 on 2007-02-11 05:44 (Reply)

I have to say this - Jen was one of my best friends, and even though I really do think what happened to her was awful beyond anything I could have ever imagined, I still believe that the death penalty is wrong. I miss her, and I think of her every. single. fucking. day. But I do believe that the Zarate brothers shouldn't be killed, locked up behind bars in uncomfortable cells with nothing to do for the rest of their lives but think about it - I think that punishment's better then just killing them. It makes them miserable, or one would think. Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I actually saw them face-to-face; I'd probably kick them or try to kill them myself . . . but since I thought that the death penalty was wrong even before Jen was killed, I'm going to stick by that belief.

#7 M--- on 2007-03-13 13:24 (Reply)

i just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there who reads this for their continuing support. all of your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.

#8 laurie parks on 2007-02-26 23:39 (Reply)

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment: Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.

Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:

BBCode format allowed
: Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry