Bond not intended as punishment

I first read it in a basketball book, but the phrase exists in many forms: Revenge is like eating a bowl of poison and hoping the other person dies.

There’s been plenty of eating around eastern New Mexico this weekend, on news a mother-and-daughter pair were released on bond.

Mary and Sandi Taylor face two counts of child abuse, one for great bodily harm and one for death. They’re accused of leaving 22-month-old Maliyah Jones and 3-year-old Aubrianna Loya in a hot car for 90 minutes July 25 at the now-shuttered Taylor Tots daycare. Maliyah died, and Aubrianna is in critical condition.

The Taylors face a maximum sentence of 36 years in prison if convicted.

District Judge Donna Mowrer set the Taylors’ bond at $100,000 cash or surety each, and their attorney said they were in the process of bonding out Friday afternoon.

That’s when the anger set in by commenters on social media.

Free? They should never see their families again. They should be put in a hot car themselves. The justice system is terrible.

An average online comment includes at least one of the previous three sentences.

Those commenting are generally good people, but they’re either unaware of how the justice system works or too angry to care.

The Taylors haven’t been sentenced, or found guilty by a jury, or been in front of a jury. They’re charged with crimes, for which they’re required to return to court.

That’s all a court bond does. It’s a dollar amount that helps ensure a defendant won’t skip out on future court dates. It’s not a de facto prison sentence, doled out by a judge who knows what the defendant can’t afford.

Mowrer was appointed to the bench to make legal decisions, not popular ones. Mowrer followed the law, and shouldn’t be scorned for it. The incident, while unquestionably tragic, lacks premeditation or any indication the Taylors are a flight risk. The justice system doesn’t always work around our schedule — and sometimes it doesn’t work at all — but it worked Friday.

The night before, a friend across the country with no knowledge of this incident shared a parenting blog titled, “I would never forget my child in a hot car ...,” describing a collision of innocent events that led her to do exactly that. She freed her 4-year-old son after 10 horrible minutes, and over the next few days taught her children how to open doors, pop trunks or honk the horn.

National studies show about three dozen children die every year in hot car incidents, and no demographic is immune. It could be a stay-at-home parent or a CEO, Christian or atheist, black or white, etc.

The local circumstances of July 25 are their own, but every story reminds us bad things happen and we must always check our surroundings.

At the same time people were lighting pitchforks online, others attended a benefit concert for the families of Maliyah and Aubrianna. We saw the same compassion in car washes and GoFundMe efforts for 13-year-old Gevion Lewis, who didn’t survive a July 4 swim at Hillcrest Park.

We find ourselves at a fork in the road. Do we go down the path of revenge to follow those charged, or do we travel the path of compassion for the families who mourn?

Bad things happen in life and death. Sometimes the only thing we can control about either is how we react.

Kevin Wilson is managing editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at: [email protected]