[Mr 5 0]

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I agree with your sentiments regarding Clara Harris. Her ego and total self-centeredness propelled her to brutally murder her husband with her Mercedes while her step-daughter watched, helpless to stop her. She is a murderer. Harris' 'accident' defense was a joke and an insult to peoples intelligence. Her predictable waterfall of tears were wasted on me and most people. I consider the 20-year sentence light considering the crime and the circumstances surrounding it.

During the nightly news reports of the trial I kept thinking that if a man had done this, he would have gotten life, at best. Then, Bill O'Reilly's 'Factor' show mentioned that a guy in Fort Worth who committed a similar crime (found and shot his wife and her lover in bed - the wife died) received a sentence of 'parole' (no jail time) because of the 'emotional disturbed at the time' defense he put up. That was wrong. Murder is murder. If you do it without planning, it's Second Degree murder and no death penalty - but it's still murder and no one should walk away with no jail time for a murder. Clara Harris received a very fair trial and sentence, the guy who got off did not receive justice but then, as all human justice is flawed, maybe it all balances out. I hope so.

Meanwhile, as you pointed out Christine, many lives have been altered for the worst because of what that jealous and vindictive woman did in her fit of ego-powered rage. 20 years is light. She'll probably be out in ten years or less but the damage - not to mention the death she caused - will remain long after Clara Harris walks out of prison, ready to 'get on with her life'. As for the suicide watch; not a chance. People like her are so egocentric that they never kill themselves - only others. Harris may be an exception but I doubt it. One thing she'll always be is a murderer.