Pardon me, Karla Homolka

I've got some pretty black-and-white perspectives on justice, namely the fact that it simply doesn't exist in more cases than we could ever want to admit. Take Karla Homolka, who along with then-husband Paul Bernardo kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French in 1991 and 1992, respectively. The two also raped and murdered Homolka's teenaged sister, Tammy, in 1990.

What makes an unimaginably bad situation worse is the fact that Karla Homolka cut a sweetheart deal with authorities in exchange for testifying against Bernardo. She plea bargained to a manslaughter charge and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Later, the discovery of a videotape of the crimes made it abundantly clear that she was far more than a passive participant, and she was hardly cowering under the thumb of monster.

She was released from prison in 2005 and has since skipped from community to community, moving when local residents find out this cretin is in their midst. She was back in the headlines this week when it became apparent that she could be on the verge of being pardoned for her crimes. National outrage quickly prompted the federal government to announce it would be introducing legislation to make it much more difficult to seek pardons.

Which is my long-winded way of wondering how freakishly inhuman souls like Homolka can ever be truly pardoned, and why we even grant them this right. It's the major-crimes equivalent of saying sorry and letting bygones be bygones. It doesn't work that way in my book, and I do hope there's a greater sense of justice for folks like Homolka in some future world. Because this world seems to make it all too easy for them to get away with murder.

Your turn: If the justice system is anything but just, what comfort can society offer the French and Mahaffey families, and others like them? Why do victims seem to get such short shrift so frustratingly often?