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Does an 11-Year-Old Deserve Life in Prison?
This ignoble club also includes the nation’s most famous and most tragic preteen killer: Broward County, Florida’s Lionel Tate, who, at the age of 12, was convicted of felony murder and given a life sentence.
Tate was the youngest person in US history to be sentenced to life. He maintained that he had accidentally killed a six-year-old girl his mother was babysitting. The two were just playing, he said, and he was imitating television wrestlers who trounce their opponents. His badly bruised victim wound up with a ruptured spleen, a fractured skull, and a partially detached liver.
Giving a life sentence to a middle-school boy with an IQ of 90 for what might have been an accidental death provoked a public uproar. How could the judge be so harsh? Was this racism? (Tate is African-American; Jordan Brown, Joshua Phillips, and Eric Smith are white.) The judge said he had no sentencing discretion, given the felony-murder charge. Tate’s family and defense team were stunned; his mother had been so sure of an acquittal she’d advised Lionel to turn down a lenient plea bargain. Even the prosecutors were shocked, and, in a highly unusual move, offered to help Tate get his life sentence overturned.
As it turned out, Tate’s sentence was eventually overturned. There was a feeling that many key questions that should have been asked early on were not. For instance, the judge who overturned the sentence determined that Tate’s mental competence should have been evaluated prior to trial, but it wasn’t.
So even though no one knows exactly what happened at the Brown-Houk home last week, I hope everyone close to the case is asking the hard questions. Did the father keep the gun locked away? Why didn’t he act on statements Jordan allegedly made about wanting to “pop” Houk and her children? Did Jordan have a history of mental-health or behavioral problems? Was he abused, bullied, or neglected? Had Houk ever harmed or threatened Jordan? Law enforcement has to ask, too, whether someone else could have committed the crime, and whether the boy was set up—there have been cases in which adults have used juveniles to commit crimes on their behalf. The D.C. sniper case, in which teenager John Boyd Malvo killed while under the sway of adult John Allen Muhammad, is just one example.
As for fixing the process, the best solution that seems possible in our tough-on-crime culture is a “mixed” justice system in which children who commit violent homicides are neither thrown into the adult system nor sent to juvenile centers for a few years of rehab before being released. Ohio Northern University Law Professor C. Antoinette Clarke has identified a menu of possible “blended” systems of justice for youth, in which sentences could be custom-built, allowing children, for instance, to be incarcerated in facilities meant for their age group before being phased into the adult justice system as they grow older.
But one thing is clear: An 11-year-old does not, under any circumstances, belong in an adult prison among the tough guys one sees on cable lock-up shows. He may be totally innocent. He may be a good kid who made a once-in-a-lifetime mistake. Or, unfortunately, he may be a bad kid, headed for a life of criminal entanglements. This possibility must be entertained—we learned from Lionel Tate what happens when sentences for children are too lenient.
After Tate’s life sentence was thrown out in 2004, he was released on probation and one year’s house arrest. Nine months later, he was caught out of his house carrying a knife and given an additional five years' probation. Eight months after that, now 18, Tate held up a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint. He got 30 years for the probation-violating gun possession, and another 10 for holding up the deliveryman.
A man at last, and now a real criminal.
Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She writes about everyday ethics, health, and the right to privacy for scholarly journals and the popular press.
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acherryghost
Thank you for this thoughtful take on a difficult subject. I agree that putting an 11 year old CHILD in an adult prison is never a good idea. This approach has no benefit to our society. Any hope of redemption will be destroyed by putting the kid into the destructive atmosphere of adult jail. If he is not a "bad kid" who is beyond help, he will be in short order. Our "tough on crime culture" needs to realize that children should be treated differently within the justice system, because they are different. Their brains are still developing. This story also makes a strong case for giving judges the discretion they need. Every case is different and mandatory minimums do more harm than good.
onedirector
Guns don't kill people. People kill.... No,make that children kill... no, I mean... where's Charlton Heston when you need him.
Gee. What is the element that could change this story. Gun maybe? Take the gun out of the equation see if the situation changes. When are we going to wake up?
AndreainNY
An 11-year-old knows nothing about life. He should not be treated as though he does.
pennsykid2000
You ask if the father kept the gun locked up. Clearly, you haven't read a lot about this case; it was the KID'S gun he used to kill his father's pregnant girlfriend, not his father's. That tells you a lot about the mentality of the father, that he gave his 11-year old a shotgun. This tragedy is not surprising when you mix the immaturity of a jealous 11-year old with the immediate lethality of firearms. How many kids in his situation have been worried about the upcoming changes due to the engagement of a parent? Probably thousands every day, but very little violence usually results because guns often aren't readily available. A gun only takes a fraction of a second to aim and shoot, way too short a time for a kid (or anyone) to reconsider their actions. This is yet another clear demonstration of the scientific fact that a gun in the home is many times more likely to kill a resident of that home than any intruder. Yet, politicians always toe the NRA party line and dismiss any need for changes, hoping for the furor in cases like this to just blow over. And it always does.
madamemoine
I think the father should be charged with aiding and abetting a felony murder. How is it that he can buy a rifle for his 11 year old son? That is the crime in this tragedy.
spithole
The father is most to blame because he gave his 11-year old child a shotgun. This is un-forgive-able. And we ask why this child did this? Because his very father explicitly condones it. Child are "children" for a reason. They're often not developmentally able to make good decisions about their lives. Factor in the competing signals of feeling neglected by a step mother with new kids introduced into the home and a gun and you have gross neglect by the caregivers.
Why isn't the justice system focusing on these things!?
citivas
I agree there should be a better system than to immediately inflict adult prison on child offenders.
But I disagree with the other implication of the peice and some of the comments that we shouldn't hold kids this age accountable for their actions, as we would an adult -- including the possibility of life sentences. I have a 10-year-old son. He fully understands the difference between right-and-wrong. He knows it would be unthinkably wrong to commit violence against someone, regardless of his personal motive, but for possible self-defense. Can he imagine what life in prison would be like as a consequence of his action? Of course not -- not even close. But understanding the consequences of being convicted of a crime should not be a requirement for judging if someone is accountable. That is not fair to the victims, their families or society.
Clearly there should be a substantial differences between these cases of willful homicide and those, like the last example, of accidental manslaughter.
I do agree with the other poster who mentioned a root problem was access to firearms in the household to begin with. To clarify, this boy used a shotgun specifically marketed as being for kids his age, which reflects the broader issue of why any 11 year-old needs experience with, let alone possession of, a gun. It was allegedly for hunting, of course. But that's a whole other argument, and I doubt it would change the outcome. Based on the available evidence, this wasn't an accident -- this boy killed with deliberation. Had the gun not been available to him he likely would have found a knife or another means to accomplish his purpose.
keepakeeper43
"Though sending an 11-year-old to live with rapists, bank robbers, and murderers might seem crazy"
It is crazy.
Lock children up, but give them activities, learning and counseling, because that is what they need.
They are not adults.
By housing them as adults and treating them as such, you are making sure that they will be only hardened criminals, and that will be their only future - as murderers, rapists, and theives.
Remember, there are light years on all levels between an eleven year old and an eighteen year old.
writerforhire
A child received a rifle as a Christmas gifts. The family, father, knew the weapons purpose. Used properly it was to kill animals, target shoot and for the child to become more skilled at target shooting. He knew the weapon could mortally wound both animal and human. He pointed the gun at a human and, unless it had a hair pin trigger, he knew exactly what he was doing and what could happen. Therefore his punishment should be consistent with other criminal offenders of his age. He'll probably go to a youth facility until he is 18.
I guess, "no," is the answer to your question. He should not be exposed to more violent deviant criminals.
Rdschenkel
Kids have had access to firearms throughout history. The problem here is these parents are allowing these kids access. Either the parents didn't teach their kids to respect life, or the kids are in need of psychological help.
january13a
citivas,
I'm sure this kid knew the difference between right and wrong. Regardless, he wanted to pop her in the head, he wanted to kill her and he did. If he didn't have a gun, perhaps he still would have killed her, but in another way. The fact that he thought those thoughts and acted on them makes him a sociopath, regardless of his age.
onedirector
The only result from putting a juvenile comvicted of a crime in jail is a better criminal. Not better as in a better person, but better as in better able to commit and get away with crimes. Jail is crime school. There has to be a better way to deal with this boy that putting him in jail. The problem is that politicians and bureaucrats are cowards and cave to the popular will. If he were a cute little blonde girl, things would be different.
Another thought--if he had damaged property, his father would be responsible... just sayin..who gave him the friggin gun?
bigwurzz
A child can begin hunting at 12 years old. I did and had access to several guns which I never would have considered using as a weapon. A gun is just a tool like a hammer or a wrench. The problem here is the parents. The father should be standing trial for manslaughter. And, anyone who thinks an 11 year old is competent to stand trial needs their head examined.
The real problem is that there are several thousand children who murder people every year, even in the best year on history there were still almost as many murders committed by children as people killed on 9/11. The murder rate in this country is appalling and disgusting.
SantaFromTheNorth
@ AndreainNY: If an 11 year old is old enough to OWN a gun, he better know about life and the absence of life that can result from pulling the trigger. IF he was adult enough to shoot his dad's fiance, he is adult enough to suffer the consequences with others who made that very adult but ill advised decision.
If he does not survive prison, it is just society's way of culling the herd since his dad did not teach him proper respect for the use of firearms or to control his anger or respect for human life. If he did not learn those things in spite of his dad, well this is his just reward for ignorance. Every action has a consequence, for good or ill.
southernyankee
Why was this child put in this position in the first place. Why don't parents who are divorced put their children first. They never stop to think about how their children's feeling. If this young man hated the lady than I am sure the father realized it and should have thought of his child first. I know that sounds old fashioned but we have so many messed up kids today and maybe if parents start thinking of their children first we may not have this kind of thing happening.
StromsDaughter
Their is no hope for that boy you can't rehabilitate evil. He should soend the rest of his life in prison.
Thank you.
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