Normally one would think that when a Naval officer who tried to kidnap and murder another serviceman would be court-martialed. Not so for Lisa Nowak. Nowak, who attacked and planned to kill a romantic rival, continues to receive the kid glove treatment standard for female offenders.

According to this UPI story, Nowak has been reassigned to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi to serve as a training officer--not a bad gig for the would-be Scott Peterson. In my co-authored column Scott Peterson in a Space Suit (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/26/07) I explained:

“The media is soft-pedaling numerous aspects of the Nowak case. Practically every media outlet has explained Nowak's decision to wear astronaut diapers on her journey to allegedly attack romantic rival Colleen Shipman as a bizarre, freakish action indicative of her mental instability. In reality, Nowak acted with logic and calculation—she did not want to stop several times on the way from Houston to Orlando and leave a trail of convenience store camera records behind her. For the same reason, when Nowak arrived in Orlando she disguised herself, checked into a hotel under a fake name and address, and paid cash.

“Similarly, numerous commentators have described Nowak’s equipment--a 4-inch folding knife, a steel mallet, several garbage bags, rubber tubing, a BB gun, and pepper spray--as ‘wacky’ or ‘bizarre.’ They are nothing of the sort. Orlando police believe Nowak intended to kill Shipman, and she probably planned to utilize the garbage bags to dispose of her, perhaps in Galveston Bay. As Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones explained, it was a ‘fairly elaborate plan’…

“Nowak was let out on a light $25,500 bail and, except for those grumpy Orlando prosecutors, most are trivializing what she did. In 2002, Scott Peterson killed Laci Peterson and disposed of her body in San Francisco Bay. Except for the fact that Nowak botched the job, is her alleged crime much different?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Domestic Violence/DV System, Crime/Criminal Justice System/Police, Men and the Media, Sexism, Gender Issues (Misc.). You can trackback from your own site.