Barzee did indeed have six children with her first husband, but she abandoned them all to focus solely on Mitchell when he demanded it.
Smart, now a mom of two herself and very pregnant with a third child, cannot comprehend how a mother could let such horrors happen to any child. And neither can I.
Taylor Telford of the Washington Post said it perfectly when she wrote yesterday:
“When her husband said God had ordered him to take another wife, Wanda Barzee believed him. When he stole a teenage girl and dragged her up a mountain, Barzee helped keep her captive for nine months. When he raped and tortured the girl, Barzee never intervened.
Now, after 15 years behind bars, Barzee will go free next week.”
I don’t care what abuse Barzee herself suffered at Mitchell’s hands. I am sad for her, but it doesn’t excuse what she did, and fifteen years behind bars in trade for Elizabeth’s nine months of torture as a child—a child—is not enough.
Justice has NOT been served in this case.
Thankfully, Mitchell is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
