First off, I have to make an admission. I don’t know what convicting in absentia means. That’s what I heard happened to John Mark Karr. I thought it meant they had the evidence against him and it was compelling enough to go ahead and put him in jail. Maybe I heard wrong. Maybe what it really meant was he was convicted on charges related to not appearing in court and fleeing the country.
Karr got out today. The prosecutor in Sonoma County, California had lost the evidence that they needed to go to trial, between the time Karr fled the country, and when he was extradited back to the U.S. Even so, according to their laws, even if they had gone to trial and the prosecution had won, Karr still would’ve been released for time already served in jail. As the article notes the most they were hoping for was to require him to register as a sex offender, but that’s not going to happen.
Talk about a lucky guy. He gets first class treatment when the feds bring him back to the U.S. at the behest of Boulder DA Mary Lacy. He gets a free trip to Boulder. He gets a free trip to California. Then he gets let go.
This sort of namby-pamby behavior on the part of the DA in Boulder, and in Sonoma, California just encourages more crime. It makes it look like criminals can get away with anything, because the prosecutors are incompetent.
It creeps me out that Karr is being let go without so much as a tracking device to let authorities know where he is. I’ve heard enough about him that I would not want him near children. There’s nothing stopping him now, except for aware parents.
Politically Incorrect in Boulder 
I guess you have found out by now that in abstentia is merely Latin for in his absence. Many war criminals have been tried and convicted in their absence. cyquick.wordpress.com [This blog has expired – PIBoulder]
Cy-
I knew that “in absentia” meant “in his absence”. I don’t know what the consequences of that are. It was strange to me, because I thought that all people charged with a crime were entitled to a defense, etc. I double checked the story. Indeed it said he was *convicted* in absentia. It sounded to me like the courts had already decided he was guilty without him being there. That wasn’t the case.