Lawyer for Americans held in Haiti quits

Summary: A missionary group of Americans were charged with kidnapping 33 children from Haiti. One of these members was Edwin Coq, and after being accused of this offense he decided to quit as a lawyer for Americans. The conviction charge for the kidnapping could be a maximum of life in prison but the criminal association charge would carry a penalty of three to nine years. After the earthquake in Haiti, January 12, these Americans just wanted to take the children out of the country and across the boarder into the Dominican Republic. Although they tried to do it without legal documentation, therefore causing it to be a criminal action. Some of the parents of these 33 children stated that they gave the American missionaries permission to take their children because they promised to give them a better life. After crossing the boarder they planned to put the children into an orphanage that they were building there. The leader of the group and Coq said that they had no intention to do any harm.

Opinion: To be honest, under the extreme circumstances, i think that the connviction charge on the missionaries could have been lowered. Ever since the earthquake in Haiti, everyone has been trying their best to help in anyway possible. Therefore, i don't believe that these people should be charged with kidnapping if they were trying to do the right thing. Although, they did not have legal documentation to do so, they were still trying to do what they thought was best for the children. It also makes a difference that the children's parents gave the Americans permission to take them out of Haiti. So when it comes down to it i think that the American missionaries should be charged with less of a punishment such as, three years in jail maximum, but not more than that. Because of everything that has been going on in Haiti i truly believe that they were just trying to provide some of those people with a kind action and shouldn't be punished to that large of an extent for doing what they thought was right and best for the kids.