Rena

Mr. Obama

I have sent a letter requesting action to Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon concerning the recent incarceration of Wendy and Randy Maldonado. This story was on HBO recently and documented the years of domestic violence and abuse on a family.

I am asking you to become involved because an injustice has taken place only because of the laws that are in place today.

Wendy Maldonado suffered tremendous emotional, physical and pshycological abuse in her marriage. This abuse also became familiar to each of the children in the household. Police were called and as is in domestic cases she was expected to turn the police away or receive another beating by her husband Aaron. Neighbors called the police and anticipated the tragedy that took place. The question is why the police and their visits did not.

Aaron Maldonada repeatedly told his wife he would kill her. He designed a “killing spot” for her in a field. He wrote a song for her that he would kill her and how. He knocked out her teeth, broke broom handles over her back and smashed her head into walls regularly. He then started to beat the children and conditioned them to not react when he hit them or else he would impose a more lethal beating.

It is time to review the laws concerning domestic abuse. In a country where possession of marijuana can land you 10 years in jail, or confiscate your home or judge you as a co-conspirator, with very little evidence, the laws concerning abused woman are archaic and shallow.

The judge admitted that the abuse was so severe that he could not fathom how the family got along. However, he stated that he was bound to impose sentences to both Wendy and Randy according to how the law read.

Laws can become outdated and this area of law needs overhauling. The fact is America protects its grizzly bears and cubs to a far more ethical standard than our own woman and children.

Wendy Maldonado and her son Randy do not belong in jail. Why was this tragedy not concluded as self defense of a family? How much more vivid evidence do we need to show the quotidian abuse. It is wrong to incarcerate these victims and it is wrong to abide to a law that does not consider the greater perimeters of today’s sociometry.

Please review their sentences after you review the law.

Rena Mlodecki