Jillian Ludwig's Death Highlights Flaws In Providing Compassion For Violent Criminals

You might not be familiar with the case of Jillian Ludwig, whose death underscores the flaws that plague our legal system.

Ludwig was an 18-year-old musician who attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. She was shot and killed last week by a man named Shaquille Taylor, who was allegedly firing bullets at cars that passed him by.

Taylor is a career criminal. He was charged with aggravated assault last spring after shooting into a vehicle with children inside it.

However, the District Attorney’s Office said three doctors deemed him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Thus, the DA ruled it could not prosecute him.

Instead of sending him to a mental institution, where, if not prison, he belongs -- the office set him free.

Shaquille Taylor was free to again harm the public.

Meet Shaquille Taylor.

Jillian Ludwig

Matt Ludwig, Jillian's father, opened up about his daughter's tragedy on Monday, saying “We are frustrated by this essentially loophole in the system that allows this to happen."

"If there is a determination that someone is mentally unwell, then there should be some way to handle that in a manner that won’t allow them to get back onto the street," he added.

“Are you more angry at the man or the system?” WSMV4′s Marissa Sulek asked.

“I don’t know much about the man other than what everyone has heard about him and what has been made public,” Matt Ludwig said. “Our anger is with the system that allowed this to happen.”

Jillian's mother, Jessica, plans to use the death of her daughter to raise further awareness about the dangers of allowing violent thugs, like Taylor, back on the streets.

“If we can make positive change so her death is not in vain, that’s what we aim to do,” Jessica Ludwig commented.

“We want Jillian Ludwig to be a household name for something other than the event that took her life."

Shaquille Taylor's freedom highlights the leniency toward the guilty approach that has come to define so many current district attorney decisions. And how leniency toward the guilty so often turns into cruelty toward the innocent.

The system failed Jillian Ludwig.