ShareThisSALT LAKE CITY - When Elizabeth Smart takes center stage in a federal courtroom this week, the nation will watch as she confronts for one last time the man convicted of her kidnapping and rape. Smart is still contemplating the words she will use to describe the impact Brian David Mitchell had on her life when he snatched her from her bedroom in 2002 when she was 14.
Yet she is unwavering in her plan to use the courtroom finale, which coincides with National Missing Children's Day, to spread hope to other victims as an advocate.
Once Wednesday's sentencing concludes an eight-year legal drama, the 23-year-old will face a choice other women who have survived high-profile crimes know well: How much of her life might be lived publicly? Will Smart take a path of active advocacy or opt for a quieter life removed from rehashing the story that labeled her to many as simply "Elizabeth Smart, kidnapping survivor"?
The answer isn't clear.
"Right now, I'm just sort of staying open and not closing any doors yet," a cautious Smart said. "I want to go where I can do the most good and make the biggest difference. Time will tell."
Yvette Rodier can relate to the choice ahead of Smart.
She was a week away from starting college at the University of Utah in 1996 when she became front-page news. A gunman randomly shot her and friend Zach Snarr as the two photographed the full moon on a first date.
The two 18-year-olds were setting up cameras when a man approached to ask for directions. He pulled out a gun and opened fire. Snarr was shot three times and died instantly. Rodier, wounded in the leg and torso, screamed in pain as the shooter calmly reloaded before firing another shot into her head.
Alone in the canyon, Rodier crawled up a steep, rocky embankment for help. After a 30-minute trek to the road, she flagged down a passing motorist.
Later, Rodier would learn Jorge Martin Benvenuto had shot her and killed Snarr because he wanted to see what it was like to shoot someone and watch them die. The case of the "thrill killer" captured headlines as his murder case moved through the court system.
Rodier agreed to speak publicly about the shooting when asked, appearing at conferences or meetings about crime victims soon after it happened. But privately, she wanted to hide.
"I didn't want to be the girl who got shot," she said.
She started college as planned two weeks after the shooting. But other students quickly recognized her, particularly when she missed school or wore bandages as she recovered from five operations for her head wound. She retreated inward, self-conscious of the attention, she said.
"I was terrified to be out in public," said Rodier, now 32.
Rodier ended up working for former U.S. District Judge Paul G. Cassell, where she developed a fascination with the legal process and its impact on crime victims. She observed attorneys who were effective at securing justice for their clients and others who botched cases.
Rodier enrolled in law school at the University of Utah. She graduated in 2008 and is now an attorney for the grant-funded Utah Crime Victims Legal Clinic.
No matter what Smart chooses to do in the future, she has already built a résumé in victim advocacy.
In March, she earned an award from The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation that came with a $50,000 check she will use to start The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, aimed at protecting children from abuse. The foundation will focus on prevention, education and promoting radKIDS (Resisting Aggression Defensively), focusing on teaching children about calling 911 and making defensive moves against attackers.
Smart in 2008 also shared her story in "You're Not Alone," a booklet published by the U.S. Department of Justice and given to abduction survivors. She wrote in one passage, "I made a conscious decision that my abductors had already taken away nine months of my life, and I certainly was not going to give them any more time than that."
After Mitchell's Dec. 10 conviction for her kidnap and rape, she stood on the courthouse steps claiming her victory in court on behalf of all victims of sexual violence and abuse.
"I am so thrilled to stand before the people of America today and give hope to other victims who have not spoken out about what's happened to them," she said. Smart said her experience shows "it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened, and that we can speak out and we will be heard."
(Contact Melinda Rogers at mrogers(at)sltrib.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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