There's a scene in both the book and film version of "To Kill A Mockingbird" in which the main character, Atticus Finch, shoots and kills a mad dog that is threatening the streets of the small Southern town where he lives.
The townspeople praise Finch's ability to drop the dog with a single shot. No one mourns the passing of the dog but express only relief that their children can once again play in their yards.
It's what we do with mad dogs and other such creatures who have gone beyond the pale of acceptable behavior, beyond the pale never to return.
It serves two purposes, really. The first is to rid society of a danger, the second to put the dog out of its misery.
What do we do when the mad dogs walk on two legs?
When they beat a 2-year-old child to death and then try to cover their tracks by first burning the body, then encasing it in cement and dumping it into a swamp in remote LaPorte County?
We now are confronted with that question as prosecutors in Lake County put their heads together and decide whether to seek the death penalty against the two people accused of slaying Jada Justice, the 2-year-old who "disappeared" June 16 only to be found dead by the hand of another the following week.
I understand the pair of accused people, one of whom is Jada's 18-year-old cousin who was baby-sitting her at the time she "disappeared," are only accused at this point and are presumed innocent.
But these facts are incontrovertible, and someone is responsible for them.
She was reported missing June 16 by the cousin. For more than a week, police and concerned citizens helped comb the area near the Hobart-Gary border where she was last seen alive, but at that point she was already dead and someone knew it and allowed the searchers to continue on a fool's errand and the family of the child to remain in a tortured state of false hope.
The cousin's boyfriend, who is charged along with her, says he tried to stop the beating that led to the death, but police say he had no compunction about helping dispose of the body once it was clear Jada was dead.
Police say he first tried to burn the body to get rid of it, then later put it into a plastic bin and poured concrete over it. When the concrete hardened, police say, he took it to a remote area near Otis and dropped it into a swamp. Later -- maybe overcome by guilt, maybe because the jig was up -- he led authorities to the site and the body was recovered.
The beating supposedly happened while Jada was being potty-trained, and anyone who has ever gone through that knows there are some really trying times that get on your last nerve. But the only animate being I have ever known that kills its own children over potty training is the human.
This isn't the first such case, and sadly it will not be the last.
The question remains what to do with the people charged should they be found guilty. Do we put them to death, as we would the mad dog?
Or do we allow them to remain in prison for their maximum possible 65 years? We put animals out of their misery, but maybe it is justice not to do the same favor for the two-legged animals who would kill a little girl because she could not go to the bathroom properly.
The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.
