My husband’s tragic story began when he was just 5 years old, when he became the victim of a 7 year long vicious and violent rape. The rapist showed up at his childhood home while he was there visiting and threatened my four children with the same fate. He had another man with him in the passenger seat. My husband told him to leave and he refused. My husband entered his parents’ home and returned with a pistol to run them off. The driver tried to run him down while the passenger pulled a loaded sawed off shotgun on my husband. My husband defended himself and my children, and has since lost his life, and the life of our family. Due to a lack of proper presentation and an inadequate defense at best, he was treated as a criminal and not the victim that he is. Instead of going to trial like he should have, he was presented with a plea bargain that would treat him for PTSD; which 4 forensic evaluators said he had due to the childhood rape. The evaluations also said that when the rapist threatened our children, it was considered a "trigger" which created his response. The evaluations continued on to say that they believed his actions were made in self-defense. A plea bargain designed to treat him for PTSD sounded fair and reasonable. However, since agreeing to this plea, he has been unfairly punished in cruel and unbearable ways. While in the hospital supposedly for PTSD, he has been subject to unrelenting punishment and judgment. His 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments; guaranteed to him and every American Citizen by the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, have been violated and denied to him. Our family, like every other family in America has had to endure a major depression on top of everything else, and we have not been able to hire an adequate lawyer to represent him. I ask all of you, “What would you do to defend your children against a rapist, who raped you from the ages of 5-12. What measures would you take? Is there anything you would not do to defend your children against such a crime?? Why is my husband being punished like a criminal and not the victim and/or hero that he is??” He saved my children from the same fate he suffered as a child, and now is being punished and denied his civil and constitutional rights. Because there is opposition from the man who threatened my husband’s life at his childhood home, his parents’ house, we are being prevented from owning property in an entirely separate county (it is a rent to own agreement with a suitable house to raise all of our children and 3 acres). To be specific: the incidence occurred in Monroe Co; the man who objects lives in the easternmost part of Greenbrier Co; and our property is located in Fayette Co. My husband has finally found full time work, and is being forced to quit the job; even after only finding part time employment up until this point. I know what power the people of this great country possess. It is time to change the laws that give a child rapist and a man who threatens another mans life on his own property, MORE rights than the victim of childhood rape. Please help me end the absurd and brutal circumstances which are preventing him from fathering and supporting our children. Since writing this petition, WITHOUT a chance to even present his case to the judge and without being heard: my husband has been forced to leave his family, his full time job, and his home, and is now being mandated to return to a town with no permanent residency, no job, no family, and no support system. This is a travesty, a tragedy, and a crime. Please help!!