What this man did to his toddler screams for a death penalty (Opinion)

Travis Plummer doesn't deserve to live.

The 38-year-old Virginia man has six priors and, according to Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Lynne Seborowski, has had two children die while in his care. The first, according to authorities, was an 8-month-old baby boy who drowned in a bathtub. For that, Plummer pleaded guilty to child neglect.

This story is about Te' Myah Plummer, his 23-month old-daughter. This child died of unspecified violence and cocaine intoxication, according to authorities. They never could pin it on Plummer, but the judge noted “a particular pattern that consistently shows women and children as the victim of his violent acts.”

It's for what he did with his own daughter's body after death that he was just sentenced to 20 years. Prosecutors say he wrapped the girl's dead body in plastic bags then, when decomposition began, sprinkled it with carpet cleaner to avoid detection. It was kept in a suitcase and taken to New Jersey on a bus trip. For months that suitcase was kept at a friends' home in Jersey City. Plummer finally discarded the body at Journal Square by some train tracks where it sat for a another month, authorities say It was found in April of last year. That girl had been missing from Richmond, Virginia since the summer of 2017.

This was his own daughter.

While they didn't get him for a homicide, they got him for desecration of human remains— he was convicted earlier this year. That normally would carry 5 to 10 years in prison but because of the priors it got an extended sentence. Yet they say he'll likely serve only 10 years. That puts this pig at 48 years old.

The prosecutor warned he'll do something again. And here society sits and lets that happen. I call foul.

Then-Gov. Jon Corzine signed away the death penalty during his term and it was a huge mistake. If anything the death penalty needs to be brought back and expanded to other crimes. Child sexual assault for example. We taxpayers are going to keep this animal alive at a cost of more than half a million dollars over ten years. To what end? So he can walk back out at 48 years old and wreak more havoc? Personally I hope he meets a Dahmer fate in jail.