Database Finds Fugitive After 35 Years

Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian has a story on a woman who was claims she is innocent and was apprehended 35 years after escaping prison by a computer database created by the Department of Homeland Security. Linda Darby was convicted of killing her husband in 1970 and sentenced to life at an Indiana prison but escaped two years later by climbing over a barbed-wire fence at the Indiana Women's Prison. She knocked on a stranger's door in Indianapolis, telling the woman who answered that her cuts and scratches were from a fight with her boyfriend. In Indianapolis she met the man who would become her third husband and moved to his hometown of Pulaski, where they raised their two children and watched eight grandchildren grow up. As Linda Jo McElroy, she used a similar date of birth and social security number to her real ones which allowed a computer database created by the Department of Homeland Security to identify her. Darby says she is innocent and fled prison because she did not want to serve time for another person's crime."

Comments

Re:Of course...

[Kjella]

We have it like that as well in my country, and it's fucking stupid. By the same logic, rape is following the basic urge to have sex, and thus shouldn't be punishable by law. Same shit about creating a crazy and incredibly dangerous getaway run, as long as you're not assaulting the officer trying to arrest you. Throw the book at them for creating the chase in the first place and accessories to whatever damage/injuries/deaths they cause, even if it's caused by chasing police cars I say. Oddly enough, perjury is still punished strictly even if you're trying to lie your way out of jail, thus following the "urge to be free". Oh yeah and the real kicker - around here if you escape and stay hidden for the reminder of your sentence, they won't put you back in jail because if you have broken no new laws, they can't hold you for "longer" even though you haven't been actually been in prison. Not that they'll stay long in prison anyway, a former classmate of mine got convicted of murder two after stabbing a guy 15-20 times - sentenced to nine years, spent 4.5 years in a mental institution before they let him out. And Norway has some of them most cozy hotel-like prisons I've ever seen - obviously it's a prison but you have most comforts...

Re:Murder = OK? Are you kidding?

[Anonymous Coward]

I vote he's a tool.

Re:Of course...

[sweede]

Why the OP was moderated at +3 or +4 informative, i have no clue because the above poster is retarded and knows nothing of the court system.

Having been on the other side of the bench several times myself, there is most certainly a penalty for avoiding or escaping your punishment as determined by the court of law.

In this case, the offender was found guilty of premeditated murder, the most serious crime in the country. She escaped her punishment and while she already served a life sentence, if she had been caught, her chance for parole would have been denied completly. So she escaped, became a felony fugitive and most likely on the FBIs most wanted list. 35 years later she is caught.

I don't see the problem here ?

Sure, she might be all nice and peachy now, but that doesnt make her any less of a convicted murderer. It doesnt make her any less of a fugitive.

Her only hope now is that the court system finds that since she has not commited a single crime in the past 35 years that they can consider her no longer a threat to society and instead serve a minimum punishment for escaping prison.