THE FACT THAT HE DIDN'T KILL JONBENET RAMSEY SHOULDN'T CHANGE OUR ADMIRATION FOR THIS STAND-UP GUY, IT SHOULD DEEPEN IT
EDITORIAL - In an age when few people take responsibility for anything, John Mark Karr, of his own free volition, confessed to a heinous crime that everyone else has denied having anything to do with for the past ten years. No one put a gun to Mr. Karr's head to confess to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, but he took full responsibility for it regardless of the personal consequences.
In my old neighborhood, we had a term for people like Mr. Karr: he's a "stand-up guy." In my book a "stand-up guy" is someone who isn't afraid to take responsibility for his actions. Or, in Mr. Karr's case, someone else's actions.
The fact that, as it turns out, Mr. Karr had nothing whatsoever to do with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey shouldn't change our admiration for him. It should deepen it.
So our hat's off to Mr. Karr as they haul him away to a California prison to face other criminal charges. He is scum, and he is seriously deranged, that is true. And they should lock him away for good, that also is true. But none of that can undo the fact that for a couple of weeks in the dog days of summer when little else was happening, we were all able to thrill to the news that a long-unsolved murder case finally had been cracked. Even though it turned out it hadn't.
We owe it all to you, John Mark Karr, a stand-up guy if ever there was one.
The Hon. Rufus Peckham
