Here's that same mentality. Boo hoo he didn't mean to murder my baby. Everyone makes mistakes. Sickening. How do you go from the possibility of the death penalty to 20 years? In the civilized world it's usually bargained down from death to life without parole. Sooooo glad I don't live in Utah anymore.

As a foster parent, I have found that an abused child's emotional suffering grows and grows when the child learns that one parent chose the abusive parent over choosing to protect the child. If this little guy had survived this beating, what would likely happen to him next at the hands of this father? More than likely, the mother would continue to stand by the father, rather than stand for the child. This betrayal, this emotional pain can be as great as the physical pain for the child.

Better his daughter grow up without a father than to be with her murderous dad.

This guy shouldn't be allowed parole. He killed an innocent child. Obviously he has mental problems and needs a lot of time to think about what he has done.

"'Yes,' Mary Putnam replied. 'Everybody makes mistakes.'"

The "mistake" made by this guy deserves the DEATH PENALTY!!!

And his wife's complicity deserves some serious time in prison. Their daughter deserves a life with people who know how to love, not torture and kill children.

Twenty years with the possibility of parole? So, a potential 70+ years of life, with education, marriage, children, grandchildren, a career, for this murdered child is equal to twenty years for his father, someone who was supposed to protect and support him, who instead viciously and painfully murdered him?

To his wife - I'm glad you still love him. I don't understand it, but that is your choice. As a mother, I could never trust my remaining child, or anyone else's, much less myself, with this man. I understand the concept of forgiveness which is required of all men. Forgetting is something else. The pain and suffering my little boy suffered before his death at the hands of his own father, my husband and father of my other child, could never be forgotten.

He may have made a 'mistake' - to say the least! but ending a 20-month year old life in such a way, brings consequences. He was given life, this child was not.

ATTENTION!!!Anyone interested in maiming, killing, or abusing a child-Utah is the place to be. Here you will find boatloads of people who will show you great compassion, including the judicial system. They believe they aren't to judge your mistakes, since we're all only human. You can leave your baby in a hot car, let them drown at Lake Powell, get kicked in the head by a horse and lay unconscious for who knows how long because your parents had no clue you were unaccounted for, maim them for life in a riding mower accident, get killed in the driveway, beat them to death,....etc. and no one will really care about the helpless little victim. All their compassion goes to the perp. They really don't seem to value little children all that much. Otherwise they'd take better care of them, including appropriate supervision. Strange attitude coming from a place that claims to value families so highly. BTW I'm active LDS who grew up in Utah.

I'm sure you have reasons for feeling so personally strongly about this. I've lived in a number of states, and believe me you, Utah doesn't even lead the list in this area.

It's a terrible problem all over America (well, all over the world, really). One of the biggest flags that people ought to be looking for is substance abuse--drugs, meth in particular, and alcohol. Until we can figure out what to do about the epidemic of those, we are going to have increasing child abuse.

I've followed a lot of these cases in my state, and it's amazing how many times the boyfriend or father is left to care for the child when this happens. If a mother knows her husband or boyfriend has a substance abuse problem, she is crazy to leave a child with him. Unfortunately, many women don't take that seriously, or are users themselves.

What can we do, ahead of time, to protech the children? CPS is useless is most of these cases--they can't "be judgmental" about peoples' substance abusing lifestyles, nor can they remove children just because drugs are being used in the homes--we must keep "families" together, you know.

I've lived outside of utah and I don't see the attitude towards adults who kill or injure children that exists here, other places. For example, Scott Peterson got the death penalty for killing his pregnant wife. Mark Hacking got SIX years to life. Child killers do not get 20 years and loads of sympathy from the public. I also don't see little kids wandering outside without adults like I do here. I lived here for over 30 years and it never ceases to amaze me when I visit to see the lack of supervision. In one neighborhood my friend told me a convicted pedophile lived in the neighborhood and yet I saw 4 or 5 preschoolers outside with no adults anywhere in sight. I feel so strongly because on these comment pages there are many who defend the actions of negligent parents. This wife's reaction is typical. "Everyone makes mistakes." Of course we do, but not all mistakes are equal. Parents in Utah need to know their inattention and cruelty are unacceptable and they will be punished harshly. So far I don't see that deterrent happening.

I recently saw a documentary about men who hired someone to kill their wife. The MOST shocking one took place in Utah county. A pharmacist paid an undercover cop with stolen drugs to have his wife killed because she'd had an affair. Get this, the man's ward members wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency because he was a "good man." He got ONE year, while his wife will spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, wondering when he'll try again. Sorry, but my idea of a good man doesn't steal drugs or hire a hitman. I don't care how upset you are with your spouse. I don't see this happening other places. People are expected to be held accountable for their actions. Church attendance doesn't mean squat if you kill or harm someone deliberately.

Check out Louisiana's laws concerning what a husband can do when his wife is unfaithful--totally gothic!

I've sat in courtrooms in AZ many times, and visited jails and prisons here, and worked with adult probation volunteers for years, and I'm amazed at people, judges, girl friends, spouses and the whole darned world! There's no understanding it at all.

Fellow here in town was convicted of embezzling over $100,000 from people for whom he was trustee. This was the SECOND time he had been convicted of embezzlement of this size, by the way. He was the former "Businessman of the Year" in our community TWICE. He was in possession of a gun, being a convicted felon, and also had $150,000 in cash in his desk when arrested. Our local priest, a very good man, stood up for him in court--that amazed me. What amazed me even more was that he was sentenced to--get this--ONE year in jail, his sentence to be served on weekends so that he "could attend to his business matters" during the week.

I wish Utah did have a monopoly on this sort of craziness--then at least the rest of us would live in sane places.