Luke, a self-described white supremacist, went on a violent rampage against Cape Verdeans in Brockton on Jan. 21, 2009, killing Selma Goncalves, 20, and Arlindo DePina Goncalves, 72. He also raped and horribly injured a third victim. After his arrest, Luke stated that he had intended to continue the killings at a local synagogue. Jurors in Plymouth County rejected an insanity defense, and Luke was sentenced Thursday to two consecutive life terms.
The criminal justice system treats hate crimes and terrorism as separate offenses. But the differences seemed to vanish as the survivor of the Brockton case told her story in court before the sentencing. She was as much a victim of terrorism as the Marathon bystanders were victims of a hate crime. Both were targeted because of a group they belonged to, and the motives of the killers in both cases sprang from the same dark place — a nihilistic disregard for the suffering of other people, rationalized by some fringe political theory.
The survivor, whose name is not being published because she was a victim of a sexual assault, described how Luke’s actions had changed her life. “The scars remain on my body; you can see them on my head, my chest, both arms, my legs,” she said. “Almost from head to toe, these scars will remain forever.” But, she said, “those scars do not compare to the scars that have been left on my mind.”
Many victims of the Marathon bombing would probably echo those words. The anguish of the Brockton survivor and the families of Luke’s other victims has played out in a less public spotlight. But the injustice is no less galling.