Late last month Elizabeth Smart stared defiantly into the face of her kidnapper for the first time in nearly a decade. In 2002 Brian David Mitchell, a self-styled Mormon prophet, claimed divine sanction in kidnapping Smart (then 14 ) at knifepoint, dragging her up a dark Utah mountain, and forcing her into a polygamous marriage during which she was tied to a tree for weeks at a time and raped almost daily for nine months.
Mitchell was sent to prison for life at last month’s sentencing hearing—but not before Smart got to confront her assailant, telling him to his face, “I want you to know that I have a wonderful life now.”