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Disturbing and sad story all around.
I had always wondered what had happened to this kid.. how he was recovering etc etc. Just sad.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-03-03-41-19
Hate-crime survivor's death stuns allies
By JOE STINEBAKER and LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON
Associated Press Writers
HOUSTON (AP) -- As horrific and painful as the past year had been for David Ritcheson, his future seemed brighter - a chance to attend college for free, to devote his life to public service and to leave behind a troubled past.
The past 15 months of Ritcheson's life were focused on recovering physically and emotionally from a brutal attack in which he was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole by a man shouting "White Power!"
He leaped to his death in the Gulf of Mexico from an upper deck of a Carnival Cruise ship on Sunday morning, according to several witnesses. Although his family has declined to speak publicly about the death, the family's attorney scheduled a news conference for Tuesday.
Ritcheson had endured more than two dozen painful surgeries and relied on a colostomy bag. Perhaps worse, virtually everyone he met knew who he was and what had happened to him that terrifying night in April 2006.
But many who knew him say he appeared to have emerged from that time with a newfound clarity. Thanks to the Anti-Defamation League, he had a full scholarship to the college of his choice. Like many 18-year-olds, he hadn't yet decided on a career path, but thought he wanted to help prevent attacks like the one he had endured.
"My sense is that he was doing relatively well," said Martin Cominsky, the regional director for the southwest region of the ADL. "We were very optimistic. It was a rather miraculous recovery."
Or so it seemed.
Ritcheson rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counseling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill.
Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped on and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving.
He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured some 30 operations. Two men were convicted of aggravated sexual assault in the attack.
Mike Trent, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted Ritcheson's attackers, said the small, quiet youth always seemed positive and upbeat about his recovery.
"He certainly wanted to see justice done in the case and wanted his attackers punished, but I thought that - considering everything that had happened to him - he had come through things remarkably well," Trent said.
He said Ritcheson had used drugs before the attack but realized drug use played a role in his assault and had promised to quit. According to testimony, the attack was triggered by Ritcheson's drunken pass at another teen's 12-year-old sister.
Ritcheson's death is "just very tragic because I thought he had turned a corner and was trying his best to make something positive out of what happened to him," Trent said. "He thought that he could handle everything on his own."
Although he remembered nothing of the four-hour attack, Ritcheson testified about it during congressional hearings in April on a hate-crimes bill. That bill passed the House and is pending in a Senate committee.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said she hopes to have the measure formally named "David's Bill" in Ritcheson's honor.
"I could not have been more moved by his commitment to getting things right," Jackson Lee said Monday. "He was able to dig deep over all of the pain and all the humiliation and try to be of help to someone else."
Disturbing and sad story all around.
I worked with this guy's aunt. This boy was killed the day of the attacks.
Poor kid.
you mean he jumped on the aniversary off the attack? becasue i thoguth that was in April 06, ?
or are you referrign to him having been pronounced dead?
I could be wrong, but I think he meant the boy was 'dead' as in spiritually ever since the attack, i.e. he never really recovered.
oh yeah, duh.
sorry I am still not completely in my brain today.
WOW you looked way too much into that
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...ghlight=attack
lots of ya'll didn't give a about this kid. i knew he would be ed up the rest of his life. ing sad.
Last I heard, the ers that did this got like 90 years in prison, with possibility of parole in 30. As far as I'm concerned they should be beaten to within an inch of their lives and then ass raped with metal pipe, you know, what goes around comes around... or at least it should
Don't worry, they'll be someone's the entire time in prison.
This is just sad.
Yes this is what I mean't. There are a couple of articles today ion teh Houston Chronicle and from what was reported this guy hated the fact that he was the 'one'. There was another mention of the shame and guilt that men carry when they are sexually assaulted. Include this along with the fact that this kid was publicly known as the guy who was pissed on and sodomized with a pipe. One of the attackers received life and the other guy got 90 yrs...
one can only hope, huh? here's to hoping
I hope the prison where his assailants are being held get copies of newspapers with this story.
Maybe the warden should just read it over the loudspeaker.
and youtube the whole thing!
! I'd watch
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