Review: A Rip in Heaven

Two groups of people aged 15 to 23, seven in total, visit an abandoned bridge. Two are raped and murdered, and a third survives a murder attempt. The other four are convicted of the crime. The story of that event and its aftermath has been written by Jeanine Cummins, sister of one of the victims and cousin to the other two.

It's the final night of a family visit, and nineteen-year-old Tom Cummins leaves his grandparents' home to meet his cousins, sisters Robin Kerry, also nineteen, and Julie Kerry, twenty, one last time. He is planning to return home with his family the next morning. The cousins decide to visit an abandoned bridge on which Julie has painted one of her poems, and there they meet the other four people. The author, Jeanine Cummins, tells the story of the victims, with only enough detail about the criminals and other participants to complete the tale. Her book is based on her research, her own experiences and the experiences of some family members. Cummins wrote that different members of the extended family reacted differently to the tragedy; some wanted to mourn in private, and some asked to be omitted from the book. This required her to balance the need for disclosure with respect for privacy. The resulting book appears to be complete, while it avoids the exploitation sometimes experienced by families who endure such a tragedy.

The author makes the murdered women come alive with her vibrant descriptions of them and their lives. She also describes the slow recovery of the third victim, the women's cousin and the author's brother, and shows how the tragedy echoed in their families' lives throughout the years of the investigation, trial, and the appeals. The role of the media, with its on-again, off-again interest and varying degrees of accuracy, is also described. The writing is clear and professional; dispassionate but not clinical. The contrast between the shocking events of the initial police investigation and the calm, academic excerpts on interrogation methods is particularly effective.

Certain legal themes run through the book - the legal distinction between a child and an adult, the influence of race in the US justice system, and the death penalty. Dogmatic answers to the questions raised about these issues are not provided; however, the issues are dealt with thoughtfully.

I am struck by how fluid and arbitrary the concept of 'adult' is. Nineteen-year-old Tom Cummins is described as a boy, and is expected to ask permission before going out at night. This surprised me, since I would consider someone of that age to be adult, in all but a technical sense in some jurisdictions. In any case, his age at the time is irrelevant - the horror of his experience exists whether he is labelled as a boy or a man. But is age relevant in the cases of those convicted of the crime, who were 15, 16, 19 and 23 at the time? All were tried as adults. Cummins argues convincingly for holding the killers responsible as adults, and also debunks media allegations that one of them was mentally retarded (another way of being childlike and therefore not legally responsible). Perhaps both Cummins and the activists she criticizes wish to use the status of a child for their own purposes. Cummins has no need to; the crimes were horrific whether they were committed against two girls and a boy, or against two women and a man. The activists are on far weaker ground. The criminals were not small children, unable to predict the outcome of their actions; and the acts of which they were convicted were clearly and unambiguously wrong. In the end, no easy answers are provided for the vexed questions of the influence of race in the legal system, the death penalty, and criminals who are physically adult but legally underage or allegedly mentally retarded.

A final theme provides a profoundly ironic twist to the story. Julie and Robin Kerry were passionately interested in prisoners of conscience, and supported the controversial Bobby Sands. Years after their deaths, activists with a similar interest in prisoners protest the coming execution of one of Julie and Robin's killers. These protests appear to have been based on the youth of the criminals, on the unproven claim that one of them was mentally retarded, and on the fact that three of the four were black, while the three victims were white. The crime itself did not appear to be of importance to some of the protesters. It is clear that mindless activism can lead to great injustice. Not all prisoners are victims of injustice, and not all appeals for support from activists are honest.

This is an excellent book and a wonderful memoir of the victims of this terrible crime. I recommend it to any reader looking for a thoughtful description of crime and its aftermath from the point of view of the victims and their family.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer - Tacoma

Book Review: A Rip in Heaven