Articles
Where is the Justice?
by Katrina O. Indiana Water FiltersFlorida wants justice for Caylee, Lagrange Indiana wants justice for Alissa. The foster mother of this innocent child will only serve 77 days for causing her death. Alissa can't speak for herself, so her uncle and several friends are getting together in protest.
In an effort to help the cause and raise more voices for the abused, I will be featuring a post from Alissa's fight for justice every weekend, until justice is served. Click here for the latest.Every Friday evening starting at 4:30 p.m. Tyler Sprunger can be found in front of the LaGrange County Courthouse holding a sign “77 Days for Murder”.
His niece, Alissa Guernsey, was killed in March of 2009 and her foster mother, Christy Shaffer, was convicted for neglect. Initially Shaffer was sentenced to ten years in prison, but the sentence was modified and Sprunger is protesting.
“One letter coming from one person hasn’t gotten one man very far. Strength in numbers and the more letters we can get and the more support we can gather throughout the community our voice will be louder and better heard,” said Sprunger.
Since his first protest last month the number of protesters has grown from a handful to more than 50 on Friday.
“I went and checked it out and I walked with him and he was by himself and I walked with him for a few minutes, got the story and I made him a promise he’d never walk alone again and he hasn’t,” said Chris Millar, who began walking with Sprunger on his first protest.
Millar and the others held signs expressing outrage at Shaffer’s sentence.
“Judge VanDerbeck chose to reduce her sentence, she had to serve ultimately she had to serve about two years, it was reduced through time served six months home detention and three years probation and that’s no justice for my 15-month-old niece Alissa,” said Sprunger.
Since the modified sentence, Sprunger started a Facebook page where he posted pictures of the abuse Alissa sustained.
“If you see the pictures, it looks like someone took a paring knife
and ground the inside of that baby’s lips and she only got neglect, not abuse or murder, that’s wrong,” said TJ Hargett, who was also among the first protesters.
Sprunger said he will protest every Friday evening until Alissa’s death is ruled a homicide.
“This was a murder, this was a homicide and I really deeply feel it’s been swept under the rug just pushed off the side of the table, no one’s wanting to acknowledge it,” said Sprunger. “Once they acknowledge it for what it truly is then we can stop and call it an end.”
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About Katrina O. 
Indiana Water Filters
730 connections, 27 recommendations, 2,246 honor points.Joined APSense since, June 30th, 2010, From Howe, United States.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
Plea Bargain-meaning that the DA's office agreed to this. Plea bargains happen every day if they didn't the very people who constantly 'protest for justice' would be the ones yelling loudest about tax hikes to cover the costs of bringing every defendant to trial. It's very easy to sit back and play armchair judge without knowing all of the circumstances as to why the judge chose this sentence. It's very easy to sit back and protest the fact that there was a plea bargain reached without knowing why the plea bargain was accepted. Perhaps the DA's office did not have strong enough evidence to secure a conviction and chose to accept the plea bargain to insure she received some punishment. We don't know what the circumstances were. It is always a tragedy when a child is killed but that does not mean any guarantee that the guilty party would be convicted. I would think Caylee's case would be proof of that.
Sep 26th 2011 13:02