Hugh Edwards was not a registered sex offender.
But his life ended because a few locals decided he was.
Twenty-year-old Robert Pascale had this excuse to offer upon arrest for the first-degree murder of the 79-year-old who enjoyed feeding the neighborhood cats.
"I hit him twice with a bat," Pascale said. "I'm sorry, because my uncle molested me."
(..)
Deputies said they found Pascale hiding in a muddy pond, with only his head above water to breathe.
(...)
Pascale has a violent criminal past and spent two years in a state prison for stealing a car, burglary, robbery with a deadly weapon and battery on a detention-facility staff member, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
He was released from prison in March, records show. Three weeks later, he was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana and held overnight at the Orange County Jail.
Michael Garay, 32 was also arrested in the crime. His criminal record includes "... arrests on charges of battery of a law-enforcement officer."
Nice guys. Perhaps if these two were required to register by the state as violent offenders and their status communicated to the neighborhood, Mr.Edwards might have been better informed of the dangerous pair and taken precautionary measures to ensure his safety.
But in Florida, that's a measure taken against those deemed sex offenders, many of whom have committed no crime involving physicality, a registry Mr. Edwards found himself somehow associated.
Meanwhile, the ACLU sits back and allows the registry to flourish. So I ask, who is the next person to lose their life over Florida's sex offender laws?
The Orlando Sentinel is covering the story. Read it and weep here.
Our sympathy to the Edwards family.
