Little Jhessye's suffering makes forgiveness impossible

This is supposed to be a week when we work at forgiveness, when we believe in redemption.

But I'm having a hard time with that, given the testimony going on in Jerice Hunter's trial for child abuse and first-degree murder in the death of her 5-year-old daughter, Jhessye Shockley.

Particularly when I read about another daughter's testimony. About what things were like before Jhessye disappeared.

About how Jhessye was kept in her mother's closet.

About bruises on Jhessye's buttocks, legs and back.

About the way this poor little girl looked.

The other daughter, a brave witness to cruelty, testified that "she (Jhessye) was hurt, I guess. She had black stuff coming out of her eyes — like goo — and she wanted me to take her to the bathroom but she couldn't walk that much."

Not long after that Jhessye disappeared.

Investigators came to believe her body is in a landfill. That was she killed and treated like garbage.

They spent weeks in the boiling summer of 2012 sifting through tons of garbage at the Butterfield Station Landfill in Mobile, south of the Valley, but they found nothing. It was a longshot at best.

But how could we not look for a little girl?

And how can we, now, based on this one witness's testimony, forgive Jerice Hunter?

How can we believe there is any chance in her for redemption?