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Thursday, September 02, 2010

More On The Kelsey Briggs Case

We all remember the sweet face of Kelsey Briggs.  We remember the heartache and the thought of an innocent losing her life at the hands of the abusers.  We also remember public officials fighting over media opportunities as well.

But the stories were confusing, the accusations tough to follow and at the end of the day, Kelsey's mother and step-father were convicted - not of murder, but of something else.

The Oklahoman has ongoing coverage of the case and the most recent story (here) adds fuel to the embers still smoldering over the case.  Raye Dawn Smith, Kelsey's mother, is appealing her conviction and the latest story is that of juror misconduct. 

The stories are compelling and there are plenty of websites out there providing different sides of the stories.  There are some common factors though with other tragic cases and again, you find the Oklahoma Department of Human Services right in the middle of it.

Personally, I find myself convinced that there are a plethora of problems with this case - whether it be the District Attorney's statements leading up to the case or the grandparents involved in the middle of the whole mess, there is something horribly wrong here. 

Was Raye Dawn Smith wrongly convicted?  She was not there when the abuse that led to her daughter's death took place.

Was there a conspiracy against Raye Dawn because DHS had been involved prior?  No one with any functioning brain cells can say that DHS is one of our more effective arms of state government.

Here is a very interesting discussion on a paralegal chat board.

I hope we can find some answers.