Ed Smart: Justice is Not Forgiveness

Feb. 3, 2010— -- Ed Smart feels "sorry" for one of his daughter's kidnappers, but sidestepped whether he has been able to comply with Elizabeth Barzee's plea for forgiveness.

Smart made it clear on "Good Morning America" today that he holds Barzee responsible for helping her husband Brian David Mitchell kidnap Elizabeth Smart in 2002 when she was 14 and hold her captive for a nine month ordeal in which Elizabeth was repeatedly raped.

"When I think of Elizabeth being taken, Wanda certainly perpetuated this," Smart said on "Good Morning America" today.

"[Brian David Mitchell] had built up this idea of what they were going to have and he was going to have all of these slave wives and she was going to be the queen. And she was very much of the opinion that this is what she was going to have and this was going to get her there. And she wanted that," Smart said.

When Barzee pleaded guilty to federal charges kidnapping charges in November, she apologized to Smart and her family, and asked for forgiveness. Her father was asked today whether he has been able to forgive Barzee.

"I feel sorry for Wanda and that is something someday she will have to answer to. Now does forgiveness mean we don't [count] on having justice? No, I don't think so. Because justice is going to keep her from doing it again and from perpetuating the cycle of abuse," Smart said.

Barzee's children detailed that cycle of abuse in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Tuesday.

The children called their mother a "monster" who once served the youngest daughter her pet rabbit for dinner.

"I asked what's for dinner and she said chicken," LouRee Gayler told Winfrey. She remembered her mother Wanda Barzee and her second husband Brian David Mitchell just picking at their meals, "but she had a smile on her face the whole time," Gayler said.

When Gayler went to feed her pet rabbit the next morning, she found the cage empty.

"What happened to Peaches?" she asked her mother, referring to the pet. "You had it for dinner last night," she said her mother replied.

Gayler, the youngest of Barzee's six children, was 14 at the time and had some of the harshest memories of her mother and her two husbands. She recalled being so starved for affection that she would turn to her dog, stay in the doghouse with the pooch and eat dog food out the dog's bowl.

Her older brother Derrick Thompson, who wrote a book about his childhood entitled "Raised By Wolves," said he would escape the physical abuse and cold atmosphere in their home by staying in the large back yard, living there instead of in the house. He would use a pellet gun to shoot birds and cook them over a spit.

Wanda Barzee's Children Say She Shouldn't See Light of Day

A sister identified only as Andrea remembered "brainwashing" sessions with her mother.

"We would be called up to her room, and she would sit there and drum into us, 'If you weren't a part of this family, then the family would be fine,'" Andrea said.

"I think the media portrayed my mother as being a victim of Brian David Mitchell, and I think one of the reasons I wanted to come on this show is to kind of expose her for the monster she is," Andrea said.

Mitchell and Barzee have been charged with kidnapping Smart from her home when she was 14 in June 2002.

Barzee has pleaded guilty to federal charges, but has not yet been sentenced. She is confined to a mental hospital while awaiting state charges in the Smart case. Mitchell has not yet been tried.

Barzee's children either left home or were thrown out of the house by the time they were 13 or 14, they told Oprah.

Gayler said she left after the rabbit dinner, but it was the "last straw" after years of abuse. She wasn't allowed to watch any television except National Geographic programs and was made to kneel and pray for two or four hours a day.

She recalled one disturbing prayer session.

"My mom was praying and I was kneeling there, and Brian actually nudged me and he pulled out some photos of some nude women and laid them up on the bed, and it seems that they were trying to get me to participate with them that day," she said.

Gayler remembered a toy kitchen she was given as a little girl. "It was one of my favorite things," she said. One day she came home and it was gone, and her mother "got a sense of happiness about it. She had a smirk," Gayler said.

Rhonda McLeod, the oldest of Barzee's children, said she had the closest relationship with her mother and keeps in touch with her by mail.

"I've told her that I've forgiven her," McLeod said. She read part of a recent letter from Barzee in which Barzee said all of her children were "precious" to her.

Gayler shook her head and said the letter "kind of makes me sick."

When asked what punishment they believe their mother deserves, Andrea said her mother should be put away.

"I don't think she should see the light of day again," she said.

Barzee issued a statement to the show through her lawyer saying she couldn't comment because of her upcoming trial, but said she hopes to continue to repair relationships despite her "serious and unique circumstances."

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