America was sent into soul-searching reflection last weekend after the sentencing of a 14-year-old boy to life imprisonment for a murder he committed when he was 12 the youngest ever age for a crime leading to life behind bars without possibility of parole. The (London) Observer
This is a boy, no matter what crime he committed. Judge Joel Lazarus
If the law supposes that, the law is a ass, a idiot. Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist"
We are a nation of laws. Judge Lazarus
When we as family, as community, as society writ large, fail kids, why do we treat them as if they were mature adults capable of knowing that they are being as stupid as mature adults can be?
Lionel Tate, 14-year-old Lionel Tate, was tried for first-degree murder in Florida and found guilty of killing 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick. The judge, Joel Lazarus, sentenced this 14-year-old boy to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Now it all comes down to politics, and that's a shame. If it's politically expedient, Gov. Jeb Bush will free Lionel; if he calculates that it is not politically expedient for him or for his brother, he won't.
But think of Lionel Tate in shackles. Think of what's right. Think of Lionel in prison with sex-starved hardened criminals who see him as fresh meat. Think of Lionel there for the rest of his life.
Tiffany's father says we should all celebrate. He's entitled to his pain, but he's wrong.
Lionel's mom unwisely turned down a plea bargain that would have placed Lionel in juvenile jail for three years and on probation for 10. "People say I am a fool," Kathleen Grosset-Tate, Lionel's mom, told the judge. "But how do you accept a plea for second-degree murder when your child was just playing?"
And, she should say, when she was sleeping while supposedly baby-sitting Tiffany, leaving 170-pound Lionel to "horseplay" with 48-pound Tiffany.
Lionel is, without a doubt, responsible for the death of an almost-sister friend whom he used as a wrestling mate, a la TV. He was 12 when he body-slammed his friend, in imitation, he said, of what he'd seen wrestlers on television do.
But the judge didn't buy the horseplay defense. "The evidence of guilt is overwhelming," Lazarus said. "The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous and indescribably cruel."
As much as I believe in personal responsibility, I can't help feeling that somehow we are to blame when kids like Lionel do such dumb things and when we feel comfortable washing our hands of them by throwing them in prison forever. Charles Andy Williams, the 15-year-old who allegedly killed his classmates last week in California, also could face life in jail.
The Detroit News put it this way in writing about how we are writing off kids with these treat-'em-as-adult laws: "Whether an admission of helplessness or failure of will they promise punishment rather than rehabilitation, tough love without the love. They say that a kid who kills is a killer, not a kid."
What does that make us? The word "criminal" comes to mind.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.