Apology for him...
...justice for her.
Elizabeth Seccuro was raped as a 17 year old freshman at University of Virginia in 1984. In 2005, she received a letter of apology from her attacker, William Beebe. Beebe sent it as part of step nine in his AA recovery. According to the AA website, step nine is where the individual strives to make "direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."
After a series of communications prompted by Beebe's letter, Seccuro decided to seek prosecution of Beebe. I applaud her decision.
The Hartford Courant reports that during the trial, "Prosecutor Claude Worrell described Beebe's decision to apologize as selfish, and said it traumatized Seccuro all over again. Defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana responded that it was "sad and tragic" that Beebe's apology was depicted that way, and said Seccuro made a choice to respond to his letter."
The same article quotes Ms. Seccuro as saying "To me, this was never about step nine...Alcohol doesn't rape people. People rape people."
Amends pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
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