Angry in the Great White North

You can go review my posts on John Mark Karr. You will note that at the very beginning, it was clear to me that he was probably fabricating the confession to his involvement in the JonBenet Ramsey case as a way to get out of Thailand. When he reached the United States, it was only a matter of time before he walked a free man.

Today it happened:

A judge dismissed child pornography charges Thursday against former JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr after prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Mr. Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Mr. Karr, 41, was returned to California last month to face the five-year-old pornography case after DNA evidence cleared him of killing the girl in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.

The child pornography case was botched when the police lost the evidence. It wouldn't have mattered. Even if the evidence hadn't been compromised, Karr would have demanded a jury trial, as allowed under the California state constitution. Then his lawyer would have pointed out that there was no way Karr could have a fair trial given the media coverage, and he would have walked anyway.

So now he is a free man. No record. No registration as a sex offender. The only baggage he has is the notoriety, but that will fade, along with the memory of his face. He might even change his look -- dye his hair, start wearing glasses, whatever.

And he'll be back to his old games, a hero to others who share similar...interests.

Sooner or later, he'll be back in the news. Mark my words. I've been right on everything so far.

The only thing I'm not sure is whether we'll be reading about his victims, or about how he has become a victim himself of someone frustrated at the ineptitude of the American justice system.