EDITORIAL
Make it about the victims

The key witness in the murder trial of eight-year-old Tori Stafford took the witness stand on Tuesday, March 12, for the first of what is expected to a week of court appearnces. This 21-year-old woman - who pled guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years - will testify in the trial of her 31-year-old ex-boyfriend, who has entered a ‘not guilty’ plea to charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm in the same case.
_We know their names. The killer. The accused. But we are not going to print them here. We don’t want to remember them.
_Instead we want to remember a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl who was beaten to death with a hammer. We want to remember little Victoria (Tori) Stafford, who was so full of life when she was lured away from the family and friends who love her and miss her so much. We want to remember Tori, who was found partially naked in garbage bags, buried under a rock pile, with a pair of butterfly earrings and a Hannah Montana T-shirt.
_We want to remember the victim of this unspeakable crime, not the criminals who perpetrated it.
_We choose, here at least, to remember the innocent, not the guilty.
_So often, murderers live on in infamy, their names slathered about in the media and pop culture like so much butter on toast, while the people they murdered are quickly forgotten; minor actors in a monster’s story.
_How much more just to remember Tori, Jessica Lloyd, Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, Lesley Mahaffy, Kristen French, Christine Jessop, Gail Miller, Christine Weller, Colleen Marian Daignault, Daryn Todd Johnsrude, Sandra Wolfsteiner, Ada Anita Court, Simon Partington, Judy Kozma, Raymond King Jr., Sigrun Arnd, Terri Lyn Carson, Louise Chartrand, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark, Jennifer Furminger, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, Inga Hall, Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Debra Lynne...