Battleangel

I can just note in passing that this year’s parole hearing went pretty much like the 2005 hearing. The fear and hate mongering, the blood thirst, the public spectacle. The Helbush daughters demanding their pound of flesh. From what I’ve gathered, Annika once again didn’t grovel and demean herself in the way that was expected of her. She maintains that she wasn’t guilty, at least in the sense that most of us perceive the word guilty, and doesn’t accept blind responsibility (just look where the last plea bargain took her).  That is how things work in the USA apparently. Don’t admit to anything. Don’t even speak. They will twist your words and they will haunt you forever.

I have already been over most of the poignant details of the case and I remain convinced that Östberg’s guilt is not so clear cut. Despite the best efforts of Lester Fleming at the time. There are some incriminating circumstances. But at most, she is an accessory to murder by definition of a backwards legal system where being in effect a more or less passive bystander is tantamount to murder. Her so called admissions are construed ("confessed to an inmate" etc) and the authorities have gone out on a limb to make her out as guilty. This also includes the lesser known death of a Donald McKay back in 1974 which is now portrayed as yet another act of a cold blooded killer even though the system itself once came to a much different conclusion. Also, the informal details of the plea bargain she entered into haven’t been honored by the state of California due to a changing political winds. Again, read the correspondence with Lester Fleming from three years ago for more details and a clear difference of opinion.

As it stands she couldn’t even get her 25-to-life sentence commuted. Obviously, having the sentence commuted would have been a first step towards a possible future extradition to a Swedish prison or indeed some barely tangible concept of freedom to look forward to. But even that was to much to ask for.

Annika Östberg remains the longest incarcerated Swedish citizen. 27 years and counting. It is time for the spineless Swedish government to put its foot down in this extraordinary case.