The Mark of Cain.

I think I've already mentioned that I've been contacted by the court to get my feedback on sentencing, etc. As far as I know, my attacker remains unrepentant, and based on my understanding of the statute, would probably fail in an attempt to present an affirmative defense of mental defect. So it's to me relatively clear cut and dried - she's going to go to jail, the question is for how long.

To me, it would become more complicated if she presented an attitude of repentance, and then threw herself on the mercy of the court. In my mind, I've already forgiven her, and if freedom would give her a legitimate chance to find redemption, I would be OK with it - but she would still require time to earn trust over a number of years before I would want her roaming around unsupervised. The problem is that the penal system is designed to be punitive, not rehabilitative; seventeen previous misdemeanors escalating in level of violence demonstrates that  that legal/penal system is not equipped to handle this.

The thing is, even if we were somehow able to find and agree on an alternative that satisfied all the interested parties, including myself, there would still be people dissatisfied with the result, much like when God punished Cain for killing Abel by cursing Cain. God knew that men would still seek to kill Cain, so God put his mark on Cain to protect him from those who would play God themselves and exact their own punishment/revenge. The sad thing is that people still do this when they take up other people's grievances even when the person who's had the offense committed against them has come to terms with the person who committed the offense, or worse, when the "offender" in reality has done nothing wrong. I've been on the short end of that kind of scenario in the past, so I suppose that's part of why this seems to matter so much..