VoxHumanae

Several years ago I had an experience that folks in the psychological sciences would call a “flashbulb memory.”

I was living with my wife in our rural home set in the mountains of Clinton County, Pennsylvania…and got a phone call very early in the morning. For me, those phone calls usually mean that someone has passed away or that something bad has happened. In a shocking continuation of a theme…someone had passed away and something bad had happened.

I was informed that a long-time friend from high school who I had been in marching band, our indoor drumline and our high school musical had done a completely unbelievable act…
she bludgened someone 66 times with an axe.

Shonda Walter – age 23 (At the time)

Sentenced to death in Clinton County, Pennsylvania

By: A jury

Date of crime: 3/25/2003

Prosecution’s case/defense response: Walter killed her neighbor, James Sementelli, 83, as part of a gang initiation and robbery. Walter slashed Sementelli 66 times with a 10-inch hatchet as he begged for his life. Witnesses also said that during the killing, she stopped to say the Lord’s Prayer, carved a cross in the victim’s stomach as he was dying, watched television, and ate ice cream. She then took $510 in mostly change and Sementelli’s car. The defense argued (for a reason not specified in the news report) that Walter was not eligible for the death penalty under Pennsylvania law

Prosecutor(s): Ted McNight

Defense lawyer(s): Stephen Smith

Prison: SCI Muncy, PA

The other day, I bumped into a website that I actually thought was some kind of joke. I wasn’t sure how to take the content of the website and today it still perplexes me. As far as I know Shonda is in Muncy Pennsylvania and is on death row.

http://www.muncys3amigos.com/

This is her website?

The following poem was posted on the website as well… I am shocked and have a hard time not supressing the vivid imagery.

Red Fury by Shonda Walter

Red is my fury

Red is my love

Benevolent forces shine down from high above.

A course on the red sea, to hell I might send thee.

A glow from the traffic light could not stop me tonight

Blinded by the pain inside, locked it up, it will pass by.

Red I see, part of me,

My love, my fury, my jealousy.