Brian David Mitchell Found Guilty of Kidnapping Elizabeth Smart

A federal jury has found Brian David Mitchell guilty. After kidnapping and forcing Elizabeth Smart into a "polygamous marriage", only hours after she was taken from her Smart endured nine months of rape while also being forced to participate in drug and alcohol use.

Elizabeth Smart was taken from her home June 5, 2002 and nine months later was discovered by police in Sandy, Utah, just fifteen miles from her home. Elizabeth Smart lied about her identity to police on March 3, 2003 out of fear that Mitchell would kill her she would testify later in court.

Seven years later, Elizabeth Smart may finally get her life back and finally begin to put the entire ordeal behind her. Leaving the courtroom, Ed Smart stated to reporters with a thumbs up gesture "It's real".

Maybe the reality hasn't quite set in for Elizabeth or her family that the ordeal that began on a June night in 2002 is really over, but they can finally begin to focus on life that doesn't involve Brian David Mitchell or his claims of God telling him to kidnap young girls and then rape them daily by using God as his excuse.

As for Mitchell, his step-daughter is claiming that he truly believes that he was following God's will in his actions and is terribly confuses as to why God would make him go through such turmoil. One might wonder how he explains away why God would tell someone to put a child, a family and a community through the terror of an abducted child?

Will Elizabeth Smart ever be able to put this experience entirely behind her? It's unlikely as her case is unique in the fact that she was returned and she will be forever known as the child who was kidnapped and found nine months later. Sadly, the public has had an inside look at the most personal details of her life and her experience as a kidnapping victim. Her privacy was stolen the night that Brian David Mitchell took her by gunpoint from her bedroom and no matter how hard she tries, people will always know her as the girl who was kidnapped by a man who claimed God told him to do so.

May this be the beginning of a new chapter for Elizabeth Smart and her family. Maybe they will be able to live in enough privacy that Brian David Mitchell does not continue to invade their everyday life.

Mitchell is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25, 2011.

Sources:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40604990/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smart_kidnapping

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_on_re_us/us_elizabeth_smart