This poor baby. These cases and victims don't inspire widespread outrage, but we don't play that game over here. Joshua Lee Burgess, Zaria Burgess’s
This poor baby. These cases and victims don’t inspire widespread outrage, but we don’t play that game over here.
Joshua Lee Burgess, Zaria Burgess’s father, was sentenced to death in North Carolina in June 2022 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the 2019 killing of his 15-year-old daughter. He was also convicted of sexual offenses and exploitation charges, with additional prison time attached to those convictions.
What makes Zaria’s case so hard to sit with is that this was not “stranger danger.” This was a child harmed by the very person society tells children to trust. That is why cases like hers belong in the conversation about child safety, custody, family court assumptions, father access, and the dangerous myth that biology equals safety.
This sentencing is not enough. Enough would be Zaria untampered with and her voice heard and responded to. Enough would be Zaria safe. This will have to do.
I do not believe that this world deserves children.
Content warning: extremely sad and horrifying, child harm