Williamsburg rape victim urges allowing meetings with attackers
Debbie Smith, forced from her Williamsburg home in 1989 and raped in nearby woods, is not an anonymous victim.
Her attacker, Norman D. Jimmerson, was caught in 1995 by Virginia's fourth DNA "cold hit." Smith began speaking out publicly for victims and helped lead to congressional passage of the Debbie Smith Act of 2004.
In 2006, she decided she needed to meet with Jimmerson, now serving life in prison, and he was willing.
Prison officials politely, but firmly, refused.
"I am stunned," said state Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax, co-chairwoman of the State Crime Commission, after hearing Smith's story this week.
Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, agreed. "For God's sake, it should have happened," he said of the meeting.
While some states have programs that allow victims to meet with perpetrators, Virginia does not, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
"However, victims may request visitation. . . . We will review each request and handle on a case-by-case basis," he said. "One of our mandates is to protect citizens from victimization. In this particular case the director received a request and after review, he denied it." Gene M. Johnson is director of the Corrections Department.
Smith said she hopes Virginia will create a program in which victims can meet with perpetrators when both are willing. Accompanied by her husband, Rob, a retired career police officer, she appeared before the crime commission Wednesday to make her case.
While the denial occurred in 2006, Rob Smith said his wife only recently brought the matter to the attention of state Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, who requested that the issue of "restorative justice" be placed on this week's crime commission agenda. The commission staff invited the Smiths to share their story.
Debbie Smith said she began exchanging letters with Jimmerson after his conviction, and that although he denied his guilt and claimed he was framed, she has forgiven him.
"Forgiveness is a funny thing. You think that you forgive somebody but then, when face to face, all of those things you thought you put aside come rushing back," Smith said yesterday. Also, she said, "I want to know that I don't fear him anymore."
"I know victims that this has helped," Smith said of such meetings.
On March 3, 1989, Smith was doing laundry and had left a door unlocked long enough for a masked man with a baseball bat to enter. Her husband was upstairs asleep, having worked the night before.
Jimmerson took her outside, where she was attacked. After he let her go, she woke her husband and went to the hospital, where evidence was collected.
She heard nothing until July 1995, when the Virginia forensic science lab said her attacker's DNA profile matched that of Jimmerson, already behind bars for abducting two other women. The cold hit that solved Smith's case was among the first in the country.
A cold hit is when DNA from a crime scene either is matched to an offender or matched to DNA from another crime scene. Virginia's DNA database, the largest in the country, has logged more than 5,500 cold hits.
Jimmerson was convicted and is serving a total of two life terms plus 186 years for charges including abduction, rape, robbery and burglary.
Smith formed an organization called H-E-A-R-T, Hope Exists After Rape Trauma, and fought for federal support to help reduce DNA testing backlogs in state labs, leading to the Debbie Smith Act of 2004.
She and Jimmerson exchanged letters for two years and they agreed to meet, but the Corrections Department would not approve the meeting.
At one point, she felt that she was on "the opposite side of the fence from my own state," she told the crime commission.
"I knew that if I pulled the right strings, I could get in there to see him . . . but I wanted to try and do this through the right channels so that we could get a program started," Smith said yesterday.
After going as far as she could with the Corrections Department, her visit was approved by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's office. However, the day before it was to happen in 2006, the prison called and said Jimmerson canceled it.
She continues to write to him but has not heard back since 2006.
After hearing Smith's story at its Wednesday meeting, the crime commission directed its staff to look into the Department of Corrections' policy and report back at its December meeting.
Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or
.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
GoGoGG- I don’t know if you’re male or female. If you’ve never been raped, you could never understand why she wants to see him face to face. She forgives him for the act, not his denial. We have to forgive in order to move on with our lives. I would at this point, not having heard from him in 3 years, leave it, but I am not her. You refer to yourself as a kook, perhaps not a kook, just someone who doesn’t have a clue. Leave it and her be and just know she is doing what she NEEDS to do, nothing more.
I’m not understand the part about the rapist denying guilt, claiming he was framed. What then does this woman forgive him for? If he, in fact, is guilty (and he was found so) then how or why would she even want to “forgive” someone who won’t even own the crime? The fact that at the last minute he decided not to see her speaks volumes. Why the correspondence between the two? What on earth? Am I the only kook who is wondering what’s going on here?
As a victim of rape myself, I understand wanting to meet your attacker. I too have forgiven him, even though I do not know who he is. It took me years to get to that point where I could forgive, and the healing in myself that has taken place since that time has been such a blessing. I hope that one day her attacker will agree to meet her, so she can look him in the eye and let him know she has survived and he no longer has any power over her. I have moved on, I am stronger now and wiser. I taught my own daughters so they would never be a victim. Thank you Ms. Smith for being an advocate for those of us who have gone through that ordeal. I pray you will get your meeting, but if you don’t, you have still won, you have overcome, you are free.
What a wonderful woman….
I can’t speak to the decision of the Department of Corrections to deny the visit. It may have been lamebrained or well-reasoned, I don’t know. But the policy itself is sound. Someone should be vetting these requests and to allow both parties to simply agree between themselves to meet among themselves is a very bad idea in some situations. Such a meeting could lead the offender to believe that his actions were ultimately of less consequence since he received the forgiveness of his victim.
I note that the proposed visit was eventually allowed through the intervention of the Governor, but that Jimmerson then refused the meeting.
I doubt that there are many victims who wish to contact the one who victimized them, let alone meet. I fail to see what changes are needed to the current policy and why it would even be considered to make such meetings “automatically approved”.
Ms. Smith is a brave woman and I hope that she does get her chance to face her attacker. Forgiveness is very powerful and liberating. Carrying hate or resentment makes one bitter and miserable and serves no purpose. I hope that Ms. Smith does get to face her attacker and that it all brings peace and justice to her.
As a young female that has never experienced what this woman has, I am however terrified of experiencing it, and I have to give this woman credit for her incredible strength. I can’t imagine what it took for her to rise above such a traumatic experience.
I am amazed and in awe of Ms. Smith, what courage she has shown. I am equally amazed and disgusted by the behavior of the Virginia of Department of Corrections Officials, how cowardly and cold.
Robo
Post a Comment(Requires free registration)
- Please avoid offensive, vulgar, or hateful language.
- Respect others.
- Use the "Flag Comment" link when necessary.
- See the Terms and Conditions for details.
Advertisement