The cycle of abuse
Raymondeze Rivera was sentenced to death this evening. His story, and the story of the victims in his case, is difficult to hear. Rivera was born a blank slate, an innocent child with no evil in his heart. This innocent child suffered horrors as he was abused by those who should have loved him the most, parents who were most likely subjected to similar abuse themselves as children:
The jurors also have heard experts, as well as Rivera’s family and friends, talk about how Rivera was abused by his alcoholic father as a child. His aunts talked of how Rivera’s father, Stanley, admitted to pushing his youngest son down a flight of stairs.Social workers said they learned through interviews with Rivera’s family members that Rivera was locked in a basement as a boy where he was tied and held without food. Nicholas Cooper-Lewter, a social worker and a faculty member at the University of South Carolina, said Rivera was sexually abused by his father and was forced to watch violent pornography.
Two of Rivera’s aunts told jurors that extreme physical abuse has spanned at least two generations in their family.
In 1999 Rivera was jailed for assaulting Pheobe Kennedy:
He said it was when he sat in jail, awaiting trial on charges that he assaulted Kennedy, that his heart began to change.“There was violence all around me in jail there,” Rivera said. “I stayed there almost eight months. That’s when I started to change, and I started to hate.”
Although there is likely some truth to this - jail is a violent place where hate breeds - I suspect that his condition began much earlier in his childhood, through no fault of his own. More recently, Rivera was charged with the violent murders of two women - Kwana Burns and Asha Wiley. According to testimony this week, "Wiley begged for her life, hoping to convince Rivera to let her go. Burns instead fought against Rivera, slapping him and screaming for her 2-year-old daughter, Kamille, as he strangled her."
His path through life ultimately led him to this day, when he stood in front of a jury and, instead of pleading for his life, and despite the best efforts of his attorneys, asked the jury to allow the state to kill him:
"I have already decided my judgment," Rivera said. "I wanted the death penalty. Since 2006, this is what I wanted, all along. I didn’t want any help. No, I am not mentally ill. I am just an insane person bent on evil. A cold-hearted, calculated killer.". . .“I made no excuses for what I did,” he said. “I couldn’t stand here, like my attorneys, and ask you for mercy. I don’t deserve mercy. I never gave mercy to Asha Wiley or Kwana Burns – not one time. I made them suffer. I wrapped them up and hog-tied them. Is that someone who deserves mercy?”
So the cycle of abuse continues, as society itself, in one more act of evil, because he is evil, snuffs the life of Raymondeze Rivera and completes the work that was begun by his parents and their parents long ago. There may be an appeal, but if he continues to ask for death at the hands of the state there is not much doubt that he will receive it.
