OPINION:
Over the past 18 years, the American public has been fixated on the disappearance in Aruba of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old Alabama woman who had just graduated from high school. Only in recent months was the U.S. able to extradite the primary suspect, Joran van der Sloot, to face justice.
Last week, it was reported that case has been resolved (“Joran van der Sloot reveals new details of Natalee Holloway killing as part of plea deal,” web, Oct. 18). Van der Sloot was allowed to plead guilty to one count each of extortion and wire fraud with a 20-year sentence to run concurrently with a 28-year sentence he is serving in Peru for a 2010 murder of another young woman.
He will not face a murder charge for his confessed murder of Natalee Holloway or any additional punishment because Aruba has a statute of limitations on murder, and it has expired in this case.
This a pathetic miscarriage of justice. After18 years of effort and millions of dollars spent to get van der Sloot into a U.S. court, he walks away with no punishment for a murder. He will simply return to Peru to continue his sentence there once this case is concluded.
Although the Holloway family consented to this sentence, we must remember that van der Sloot committed theses crime against all the people and should be punished accordingly.
JAMES W. ANDERSON
Talladega, Alabama
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