Adrienne Shelly's murderer sentenced to 25 years

agreed for the most part. Although I heard he actually admitted to it, and probably would have gotten away with it if he hadn't admitted. So I GUESS they had to give special consideration for that. (i got this second hand, so i don't know the details that well.)

I think Phsbball4lyph is getting this case mixed up with that of Kitty Genovese all the way from 1964. Genovese was stabbed to death in the middle of her New York street, and - despite the fact that her murder was not quick - nobody came to her aid. I'm not sure if anyone even bothered to call the police or paramedics for her. There is even something supposed to be 'Genovese Syndrome', which is characterised by people just standing and watching the most horrific things happening right in front of them without intervening.

The Adrienne Shelly case was almost the exact opposite of that of Genovese. Here the killer was very careful to remain unobserved and beyond reproach. There were no witnesses to the murder, which was in her own apartment, and nobody suspected there was anything wrong until her body was found later that evening. The killer murdered Shelly without drawing any attention to himself, and even posed her body in such a way that the authorities at first believed that her death had been self-inflicted. He would have escaped justice if the police had not found his bootprint at the crime scene during their second forensic examination, which was carried out at the insistance of Shelly's husband.

I may sound mean when I say this, but you guys are lucky you had a judge that gave him 25 years. Why I say you are lucky, is because here, in England, they probably would have given him five years or something stupid like that. They let killers off really easy here and I don't understand why.

I too, am in agreement. I used to be very much against the death penalty in all civil circumstances. In wartime, it is another matter. When one side has killed as many enemy soldiers as it can, the foe gives up the fight and their chief is put to the sword. The Romans did it 2000 years ago, The Egyptians did it 2000 years before that. So I have no ethical problems with the execution of Saddam - or even Bush for that matter. It's war. War is about killing. A civil situation is...well...DIFFERENT, isn't it? You don't kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong. It's not civilised, and this is a civilian matter is it not? Almost no European country still has the death penalty on the statute books. It's a thing of the past. There was a documentary about the fall of East Germany on BBC2 recently. The first stick an elderly anti-communist used to beat the former Marxist state was (gasp of horror) the fact that they still had the death penalty on the books as late as 1961! Barbaric!

I can't think that way anymore. Adrienne Shelly's death was the most shocking and horrible thing that I can imagine. It is like something out of a cheap horror flick. I am sickened by it. The death penalty cannot possibly be an unjustified punishment for such crimes. If the culprit is judged to be sane at the time of their offence, then they should be executed. A man who kills with a noose should die by the noose. Sad to say, the 25 year sentence was the best the prosecution could hope for. The evidence was too flimsy to sustain a charge of murder under NY state law, and so the plea-bargain of a legal admission to manslaughter was really the only option.

In an earlier posting I said that in the UK, Adrienne Shelly's killer would probably be coming out of jail by now. If we take parole into account, then thirty months is about the going rate for manslaughter under English law. Actually, I don't think that he would even have GONE to jail in the first place. In England, the rules of evidence are so strict that the confession he made in police custody would almost certainly been ruled inadmissable. The 19 year old Pillco was without either a lawyer, a diplomatic representative or an adult observer when he was being interviewed, and everything was done via a translator. Apart from the confession, all the police had was his shoeprint in Shelly's bathroom. The man worked in the building. He could have been in there for a legitimate reason. Besides which, who knows when it was left there? On the day of her death? A week before? A MONTH before? Without the confession, there was no case. And so, he would have been released without further inconvenience.

This, I'm sad to say, is the law.

This story is even more tragic that most people believe it to be. It must be remembered that the 'opportunistic robbery gone bad' scenario was trotted out by Pillco's lawyer without any challenge. This was the key part of the plea-bargain that passed Adrienne Shelly's death off as manslaughter. In reality, the NYPD believe that Shelly's death was premeditated and Pillco's primary objective in breaking into her home was rape and not robbery. Detectives have made statements to the media declaring this. At the sentencing, Shelly's husband, Andy Ostroy, went even further. He blasted Pillco, labelling him "A stalker, a rapist and a cold-blooded killer".

For the record, Adrienne Shelly was neither dead nor unconscious when the noose went around her neck. The pathologist said that the angle of the ligature mark indicated that she died from hanging, and not from being garrotted or suffocated. She was also fully conscious throughout the entire process. Shelly knew what was happening to her. Pillco then positioned her body so that the authorities would come to the conclusion that her death was a suicide, and then went downstairs to finish his shift. He clocked out at the same time as usual, and clocked in again the very next morning. Nobody noticed any difference in his behaviour after the murder. He was still working in the building several days later when the NYPD, suspicious of a shoeprint found in Shelly's bathroom, picked him up for questioning.

He confessed in custody, telling police "It was just like stringing up pigs back on the farm".

I used to think the imposition of capital punishment in civil circumstances was murder too. I'm afraid that I don't think that way anymore. If anyone wants an arguement in favour of the death penalty, all they have to do is read the following:


Adrienne Shelly

1966 - 2006

Actress, Film-maker, Wife and Mother.

"I just strung her up like a pig on the farm!"


Do I REALLY need I say any more?