When is a child an adult ?, should these kids be considered adult's ?.
Could these 'children' be put on death row, or should they, whats your view.
http://www.usatoday.com/hear.htm
Bouncer
Updated link for the story . . .
The link provied by Bouncer is a temporary page on USA Today on which the stories change frequently.
The permanent link for the story to which he refers is here.
In addition to the above version of the story originally cited by Bouncer, there is an updated AP wire report, the full text of which reads:
December 29, 15:50 ET
FLA. YOUNGSTERS HELD IN KILLING
By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy, accused with his brother of murdering their father, wrote that a convicted child molester encouraged him to become a homosexual and told him his father mentally abused him, according to court records.
Alex King and 13-year-old brother Derek, both charged as adults, face automatic life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder for allegedly beating their father to death with a baseball bat.
Firefighters found the body of Terry Lee King, 40, in his burning home in Cantonment on Nov. 26.
The child molester, Ricky Marvin Chavis, 40, is charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder. He is accused of hiding the boys from police at his Pensacola house after the killing.
A prosecutor and investigator said at a bond hearing Friday that the boys confessed, claiming they were worried about being spanked for running away and that their father had gotten ``physical.''
The investigator's sworn statement for a search warrant of Chavis' home adds details, citing a note found at the murder scene in which Alex wrote that his life was cloudy and confused and without goals, and that he was uncertain whether he wanted to be a teacher, governor or president — until Chavis befriended him.
``Rick let me see what I didn't understand,'' Alex wrote, according to the statement. ``Life isn't about having a job. Life isn't about importance. Fame. My ultimate goal in life now is what his is. It is about sharing your life with someone elses. Before I met Rick I was straight but now I am gay.''
Alex said in his confession that his father was mentally abusing him but that he did not know it until Chavis told him, Escambia County sheriff's investigator John Sanderson wrote in the search warrant affidavit.
The boys' statements were sealed Friday by Circuit Judge Kim Skievaski, who also denied their requests for bail. A motion to unseal the statements is pending from the Pensacola News Journal and WEAR-TV.
The boys face a March 11 trial date. No trial has been set yet for Chavis.
Sanderson testified that Derek admitted hitting his father on the head about 10 times with a baseball bat while his father was asleep in a chair, and that Alex confessed the killing was his idea. The boys also admitted setting the fire to destroy evidence, Sanderson said.
Alex's attorney, James Stokes, argued that the boys had been deceptive in their statements to investigators.
Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer would not say if investigators suspect a broken aluminum bat found at Chavis' home was the murder weapon.
Chavis, sentenced to six months in jail after he pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious conduct with two boys in 1984, turned Alex and Derek in a day after the killing but gave conflicting statements, according to the search warrant statement.
He initially told investigators an unknown woman called him Nov. 27 and told him where he could pick up the boys and that he took them home and called police. Later, he said he picked them up when they called from a convenience store immediately after the killing. He admitted hiding them in a bedroom when deputies went to his home that day, Sanderson wrote.
The boys had been living with their father for several years. Their mother, Janet French, lives in the Lexington, Ky., area.
(The original story cited by Bouncer did not cover the child molestation angle.)
Hey, it's philosophy time!
Okay, having provided the story link and the update, I am now prepared to pontificate. Hold on while I get into lotus position . . . there.
First, it helps to know the basis of Florida's law with regard to juvenile offenders. You'll find it here.
So, to answer Bouncer's original question, it appears unlikely that the boys would be put on death row. Florida has the death penalty (think Ted Bundy), but it is generally not applied to juveniles. However, when juveniles are tried as adults for murder, the common result is a life sentence.
There is an interesting angle to this case. National headlines were made several months ago when a young black kid, 14-year-old Lionel Tate, was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was convicted of killing a 6-year-old playmate while imitating wrestling moves he'd seen on television. This occurred after his attorney had turned down a deal that would have resulted in his being sentenced as a juvenile. In the case of Alex and Derek King, we're talking about two young white kids, so it will be interesting to see if their case is handled differently, not to mention whether the influence of Ricky Chavis, the child molester, will be considered a mitigating circumstance. Keep in mind, however, that the Lionel Tate case did not involve premeditated murder, while the case of the King brothers indicates that there was premeditation.
Florida is one of the leading states in which children who have committed a violent crime are charged as adults. All but two states have laws that allow this, but Florida seems to use it more than the otehr states. One factor in this is that the decision on whether to charge a child as an adult is made by the prosecutor, not the courts. Keeping in mind that most prosecutors are elected (or, if assistant prosecutors, they serve under an elected D.A.), and that public opinion generally takes a stand-tough position when it comes to violent crime, the temptation on the part of prosecutors will always be to try youthful offenders as adults. The result of such laws is that there is a lot of moral debate going on with regard to juveniles being tried as adults, especially youngsters who are first-time offenders (regardless of how violent the crime is).
The key question in this case, as in any case involving offenders of any age, is the possibility of recidivism - the chance that someone who committed a given offense will do it again. We do not know the history of the King kids - whether they were violent by nature, whether they had a documented history of violent acts, or whether they were nice, gentle kids that happened to commit murder. We do know that once you place someone into the penal system, whether an adult or juvenile prison, they will easily become hardened for the sake of their own survival, thus increasing the chance that they will commit another crime if released. So even if the murder of their father was intended to be a one-shot deal, the fact that they are now in a juvenile detention facility will environnmentaly contribute to the chance that they would be violent upon release.
So, will they be put on death row? Probably not. Society - at least in Florida - allows for the notion that you can sentence a juvenile to prison for life, but they do not yet accept the notion that you can execute a juvenile (or even an adult who committed a violent crime as a young juvenile).
Should[ they be put on death row? IMO, no. If there is no precedent for this, it would create a slippery slope that is unlikely to be acceptable to society. We do not even need to get into the morality of capital punishment on this one (which, I'm sure, would open up a can of worms since we have a politically and geographically diverse membership on A.R.) since we're talking about such young kids. Fortunately, that is probably a moot point, since it is unlikely that a prosecutor will attempt to turn it into a capital case, knowing that even a conservative jury in Pensacola would be unlikely to convict if they know that it would result in execution of such young offenders.
Now, if y'all will excuse me, this damn lotus position is getting uncomortable, and I need to go pump some iron to maintain my dumb weight jock image . . . :D