When Van Terry stepped to the podium on Thursday to provide a victim-impact statement during the sentencing of Michael Madison, his daughter’s murderer, he felt like he was under control.
However, when Terry turned to face Madison, the convicted murderer smirked–and it was at this moment that the bereaved father snapped, diving head-first over a table while reaching out for the killer’s throat.
Sheriff’s deputies were able to restrain Terry as Madison, who was found guilty of the murders of Shirellda Terry, Angela Deskins and Shetisha Sheeley, kept a smile upon his face.
Terry told FOX 8 (via the Washington Post):
When I first went up there I was okay… I was thinking about how he mutilated my child, how you cut my child, and you did all this while my child was still alive so you caused my baby great pain… I don’t know if I thought about leaping or thought about what have you, I just know I wanted him.
When asked if he had regret about what happened, Terry was unrepentant. “I call it a father feeling his pain. And if I do get charged I’m alright with that because I did what was right.”
Order was restored, and, after hearing testimony from a number of family members, Judge Nancy McDonnell, who had never before sentenced anyone to death, did just that to Madison. “In coming to my decision today,” Judge McDonnell said, “I am struck by the sheer inhumanity of what one human being can do to not one, but three human beings. It is incomprehensible. People who commit the kind of crimes that you have committed must be punished, and must be punished as severely as the law allows. It is absolutely necessary.”
Terry, whose daughter had been tortured before being killed, said in 2013 that he hoped Madison was spared the death penalty so that he could suffer in life for his actions. “Release him inside the prison population and let him deal with it every day of his life,” Terry said. “That’s what I think. I think he should suffer like we suffered.”
