Laurel Leigh, a dear friend, colleague, and co-founder of the Dogpatch Writer’s Collective, has an essay published in the July issue of The Sun literary magazine. It’s a devastating story about her nephew who’s serving a life sentence for killing a toddler, a crime he did not commit. The story will pierce your heart, and I hope it turns more than a few heads who might be able to “do something.”
In writing this story, Laurel has bravely shared her family’s struggles. But she has also DONE something.
“We Should Do Something” by Laurel Leigh
Jilanne Hoffmann 
It takes great courage to do something, anything, in the face of such seeming hopelessness. Thanks for shining the spotlight on this, Jilanne! xoxoM
Thanks for your kind response, M. I appreciate it. I can only hope that some good will result.
Wow. I’m a little afraid to read it, but I will.
Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your willingness to read on.
A dreadful story. As so often in cases involving young children, I can’t help but feel the justice system in both our countries is a blunt instrument when it comes to trying to get to the truth amongst the nuances of family and domestic life. I genuinely fear that we are creating a society where men will be less and less willing to play an active part in the care of children, the automatic assumption seeming to have moved towards guilt.
Yes, it is dreadful. And there does seem to be a general tendency to assume a person is guilty based on circumstantial evidence. Precisely, the reason why we shouldn’t “try” people in the court of “public opinion.” Too often, the public bases its opinion on very few real facts.
Having known an innocent who served time for a crime he never committed, I am intrigued by this story. That she is a friend of yours and this is her nephew makes it even more interesting. I’ll look for it.
Dear Jilanne,
Thank you isn’t quite enough to say for this post about my essay. I’m extremely grateful to you for reading and providing constructive comments on this project over the years I’ve been working on it.
A substantial excerpt of the essay is now posted on The Sun’s website and the full text is available in the print copy of the July 2014 issue as well as their digital version: https://thesunmagazine.org/issues/463/we_should_do_something
Thanks again.
Love, Laurel
Laurel, anything I can do to help. If you put it out there, you never know who may be able to help. Take care, and I’ll be talking with you soon. xo,Jil
That’s a tough one. I can’t imagine the pain everyone in that family is going through. My heart breaks for the innocent baby.
Yes, mine, too. It breaks for everyone involved in this tragedy.