Author Topic: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder  (Read 16715 times)

Dos Equis

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #50 on: December 17, 2014, 03:58:49 PM »
The kid is probably a sociopath and charging him with murder is probably for the best, however.............? 

I thought the whole idea of deciding what year a child becomes an "adult" means that some one younger, is by definition not an adult and as such should not be treated like one in the eyes of the law.

Does this now mean that 15 year old girls can consent to having sex or are they still children but this 15 year old boy isn't?  Can someone just "request a waiver" after banging one of them?  I'm being facetious of course but the point is, why go to the trouble of making broad sweeping rules and then pick and chose who those rules apply to when they become inconvenient?

Good point.  Never thought about that comparison, but it makes sense that if we have a bright-line rule when it comes to consent, should have also have one for treating kids like adults for criminal purposes. 

Jack T. Cross

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #51 on: December 17, 2014, 08:03:23 PM »
Myself, I'd say because one is seen as a part of the routine, with much more limited circumstances to consider than the other.

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #52 on: January 14, 2015, 12:04:47 PM »
9-year-old boy arrested in Post Falls
Posted: Jan 09, 2015
Updated: Jan 12, 2015
by Victor Correa, KHQ Local News ReporterCONNECT

Kootenai Co. Prosecutor on issuing arrest warrant for 9-year-old boy: 'I regret this having taken place'
POST FALLS, Idaho -
Post Falls Chief of Police Scott Haug says he was very surprised when an arrest warrant landed on his desk earlier this week. The warrant was for a "failure to appear," not uncommon. But the perpetrator was a nine year old boy.

Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh, who issued the arrest warrant, was not able to comment because the case involves someone younger than 18 years old. However, Haug says the warrant was issued because it was the second time the 9 year old missed his day in court.

What was the original charge? Stealing a pack of gum.

Haug says this is the first time in his 30 years in law enforcement that he's ever seen an arrest warrant issued for someone as young as nine.

"I was surprised that it had gotten to this level," says Haug.

Haug also says it isn't uncommon for the owner of a business to press charges against those who steal, even if it's for something as small as a pack of gum. When KHQ asked Haug why the 9 year old failed to appear, he says it was because the family had no way to get him to the courthouse.

"Had we known that before the court date we would have provided something for the family," says Haug. "I wish we would have had more information that way we could have provided some sort of assistance."

The child is currently in the Juvenile Detention Center where he will soon stand before a judge. Prosecutors told KHQ they can't say when that's expected to happen.

http://www.khq.com/story/27815431/9-year-old-boy-arrested-in-post-falls

Skip8282

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #53 on: January 14, 2015, 04:24:54 PM »
An arrest warrant for a nine year old who stole gum.  ::)



Dos Equis

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #54 on: January 14, 2015, 04:38:34 PM »
An arrest warrant for a nine year old who stole gum.  ::)




Pretty dang stupid. 

Skip8282

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #55 on: January 14, 2015, 04:53:06 PM »
Pretty dang stupid. 


And they've got him in a juvenile detention center.

Like I said, and I know you think I'm crazy, but we're moving towards a police state.  It's generations away for sure, but it's the inevitable result of tens of thousands of laws, rules, and regulations being added year after year.

Topped off, of course, with mindless DA's and mindless cops who do shit like this under the justification that the law is the law.  ::)

oh boy...

Dos Equis

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #56 on: January 14, 2015, 06:59:26 PM »

And they've got him in a juvenile detention center.

Like I said, and I know you think I'm crazy, but we're moving towards a police state.  It's generations away for sure, but it's the inevitable result of tens of thousands of laws, rules, and regulations being added year after year.

Topped off, of course, with mindless DA's and mindless cops who do shit like this under the justification that the law is the law.  ::)

oh boy...

I don't think you're crazy.  I just don't see us being anywhere near a police state.  I agree we have a ton of laws, rules, etc. on the books and they can be onerous at times.  But we have freedom.  You can live anywhere you want.  You can work anywhere you want.  You can vacation anywhere you want.  You can be a bum if you want.  We have free speech.  Freedom of religion.  A free press.  Due process, and a host of other freedoms and protections, which means the government cannot just arrest you and hold you in prison for no reason.  Nothing like Kafka.  That doesn't sound like a police state (or a country headed towards one) to me. 

youandme

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #57 on: January 14, 2015, 08:26:19 PM »


From my point of view, every year this kid is in prison, the society loses input to the GNP.

-Hedge
Firing squad.
Bullets are cheaper and serve the victim's family best.

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #58 on: October 05, 2015, 10:15:49 AM »
Trial to begin for teen charged in teacher's rape, killing
By Associated Press
POSTED: Oct 4, 2015

BOSTON >> One day in the fall of 2013, Colleen Ritzer asked one of her 9th-grade algebra students to stay after school. Hours later, the body of the popular, 24-year-old teacher was found in nearby woods, partly covered by leaves. She had been raped and her throat had been slit with a box cutter. Near her body was a note reading, "I hate you all."

Philip Chism, then 14, was charged in her killing, shocking students and teachers who knew Ritzer as a bubbly, enthusiastic teacher and Chism as a quiet boy and standout soccer player who had recently moved to Massachusetts from Tennessee.

Two years later, Chism is headed to trial as an adult on rape, robbery and murder charges. Jury selection begins Wednesday in Essex Superior Court in Salem.

Chism's lawyers plan to use a mental health defense, although they have not revealed specifics. His mother told police her son had been under stress following her divorce from his father and their move from Clarksville, Tennessee, to Danvers, a town of 26,000 about 25 miles north of Boston.

A student who was in Ritzer's class with Chism said he was drawing in a notebook instead of taking notes on Oct. 22, 2013.

"She came over and said, 'I didn't know you draw,' and he said, 'yes,' then later on, she said, 'Can you stay after with me?'" Rania Rhaddaoui said two days after Ritzer's body was found.

Another student who was in the classroom after school that day said she heard Ritzer and Chism talking. The student, whose name was blocked out in court documents, told police that when Ritzer mentioned Tennessee, Chism appeared "visibly upset." When Ritzer noticed his reaction, she changed the subject, but the student said Chism then began talking to himself.

Chism's lawyers have retained, Dr. Richard Dudley Jr., a well-known forensic psychiatrist, to testify as an expert. Dudley has testified for a collection of high-profile defendants, including Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of two men convicted in the 2007 murders of a Connecticut woman and her two daughters; Brian Nichols, the Georgia man who killed a judge and three other people after escaping during his 2005 rape trial; and Colin Ferguson, the Long Island railroad shooter who killed six people and wounded 19 others in 1993.

Insanity defenses rarely succeed in Massachusetts, but some legal observers say Chism's youth might make some jurors more willing to consider a mental health defense.

"I would really think that youth is going to be a huge factor. Part of the argument would be that Chism couldn't control whatever disease or defect he had," said Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University.

"I assume the defense will tie it into research on adolescent brain development, in particular, adolescents have a difficult time calculating the future and having a sense of the ramifications on their future lives."

Prosecutors are expected to show the jury school surveillance video in which they say Chism is seen following Ritzer into a school bathroom, wearing gloves and a hood, then walking out of the bathroom alone 12 minutes later.

The video also shows Chism pulling a recycling barrel through the school and outside, according to search warrant documents filed in court. The barrel was found near Ritzer's body. Authorities said she was sexually assaulted twice, once with a stick.

Chism was found hours later, walking along Route 1 in neighboring Topsfield. Police there found a box cutter with blood on it inside Chism's backpack. During a pretrial hearing, an officer testified that when Chism was asked whose blood it was, he replied, "It's the girl's."

Chism also had Ritzer's identification, credit cards and a pair of women's underwear in his backpack.

Prosecutors are expected to present that evidence to the jury, but they won't be allowed to tell the jury about a confession he allegedly gave to Danvers police. Judge David Lowy ruled that Chism did not fully understand his constitutional rights before he spoke to them.

In the videotaped interview, Chism told police Ritzer provoked the attack with a "trigger" word, which he would not disclose.

"After she insulted me, that's when I became the teacher," Chism said, according to a description Lowy gave in his written ruling.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20151004_Trial_to_begin_for_teen_charged_in_teachers_rape_killing.html

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #59 on: November 16, 2015, 12:13:43 PM »
Defense acknowledges that Massachusetts teen killed teacher
Published November 16, 2015
Associated Press

Philip Chism is charged with raping and killing his math teacher and has been declared competent to stand trial. (AP)

SALEM, Mass. –  A Massachusetts teenager charged with killing and raping his high school math teacher "did unspeakable things to her body" and was "severely mentally ill," his lawyer told jurors during opening statements on Monday.

Denise Regan told jurors that Philip Chism killed Colleen Ritzer at Danvers High School on Oct. 22, 2013, but that the teenager was suffering from a psychotic disorder. Regan said Chism, who had moved to Massachusetts from Tennessee, was "severely mentally ill," and had suffered from a psychotic disorder since the age of 10.

Now 16, Chism is being tried as an adult in Essex Superior Court in Salem. He was 14 when Ritzer's body was found in the woods near the high school, her throat slit. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect.

Jury selection was suspended several weeks while the judge considered Chism's mental competency before finding the teenager competent to understand the court proceedings and assist with his defense.

A prosecutor in the case told jurors that Chism went to school on the day Ritzer died with a "terrible purpose." During opening statements, the prosecutor described Chism's movements, saying the teen came to school with a backpack containing a box cutter, gloves and a mask, followed Ritzer into the girls' bathroom after school, then strangled her, cut her throat with the box cutter, raped and killed her.

A police officer who found a bloody box cutter inside Chism's backpack testified that when he asked the teen whose blood it was, the teen replied, "It's the girl's."

Topsfield Officer Neal Hovey was one of the first witnesses in Chism's trial.

Hovey said he spotted Chism walking along a highway and brought him to a police station where investigators found a bloody box cutter in a woman's wallet inside Chism's backpack.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/16/trial-teenager-charged-in-teacher-death-to-begin/?intcmp=hplnws


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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #60 on: December 16, 2015, 11:26:52 AM »
Massachusetts teen convicted in rape, murder of high school math teacher
Published December 15, 2015
Associated Press

SALEM, Mass. –  A Massachusetts teenager was convicted Tuesday of raping and killing his high school math teacher when he was 14.

Philip Chism followed his 9th grade algebra teacher, Colleen Ritzer, into a school bathroom, strangled her, stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her.

Chism, now 16, was convicted of a raping Ritzer inside the bathroom but was acquitted of a second rape, committed with a tree branch in woods near the school where Chism put her body. He was also convicted of armed robbery for stealing Ritzer's credit cards and her underwear.

Chism stared straight ahead and did not have any visible reaction as the verdicts were read in Salem Superior Court. His mother declined to talk to reporters as she left the courthouse.

Standing later with the district attorney that prosecuted the case, Ritzer's parents said the verdicts mark a new phase in their lives in which they hope to honor their 24-year-old daughter's legacy.

"This guilty verdict, while the beginning of justice for Colleen, is certainly no cause for celebration as there can never be true justice for the crime committed," said Thomas Ritzer, her father. "There remains a tremendous absence in our lives, one that sadly can never be replaced."

The family, he added, will still be reminded of the crimes as Chism appeals the case and is eligible for parole at some point. "We will carry on and do our very best to find the good in every day," said Peggie Ritzer, the victim's mother.

During the trial, his lawyer admitted Chism killed Ritzer, but said he was suffering from severe mental illness and was not criminally responsible for his actions. A psychiatrist who testified for the defense said Chism was hearing voices and in the throes of a psychotic episode when he killed Ritzer.

Ritzer was a popular teacher at Danvers High School, about 25 miles north of Boston, doing her dream job, teaching math, Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall told jurors in her opening statement.

On Oct. 22, 2013, Ritzer asked Chism to stay after school. Another student who also stayed late that day testified that Ritzer tried to engage Chism — a student who had recently moved to Massachusetts — in talk about how his new community compared with his old town of Clarksville, Tennessee. The student said Chism became visibly upset and Ritzer eventually changed the subject.

A short time later, Ritzer left the classroom. Jurors were shown chilling surveillance video that showed Ritzer walking down the hallway to the bathroom. Seconds later, Chism is seen poking his head out of her classroom and looking down the hall.

He then goes back into the classroom, but comes right back out with his hood on. Chism is then shown putting on a pair of gloves as he walks into the bathroom. Minutes later, he is shown emerging from the bathroom carrying the black pants Ritzer was wearing.

A bloody box cutter, mask, gloves and a hooded sweatshirt were later found in his backpack by police who found Chism walking beside a highway in neighboring Topsfield.

Chism's lawyers had said he should be acquitted of the rape in the woods, arguing Ritzer was already dead by then. Prosecutors, however, had said Chism did not deliver the fatal stab wounds to her neck until he brought her outside.

Chism was tried as an adult. He faces life in prison on the first-degree murder charge. As a juvenile, he cannot receive a life sentence without parole following decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Adults convicted of first-degree murder in Massachusetts automatically receive life without parole.

Judge David Lowy set a status hearing for Dec. 22 to discuss sentencing.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/15/massachusetts-teen-philip-chism-convicted-murder-rape-in-killing-his-high/?intcmp=hpbt2

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #61 on: January 25, 2016, 11:40:17 AM »
Supreme Court justices extend bar on automatic life terms for teenagers
Published January 25, 2016
Associated Press

Oct. 13, 2015: People line up outside of the Supreme Court in Washington as the justices began to discuss sentences for young prison 'lifers.' (AP)

WASHINGTON –  The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people serving life terms for murders they committed as teenagers must have a chance to seek their freedom, a decision that could affect more than 1,000 inmates.

The justices voted 6-3 to extend a ruling from 2012 that struck down automatic life terms with no chance of parole for teenage killers. Now, even those who were convicted long ago must be considered for parole or given a new sentence.

The court ruled in the case of Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison more than 50 years, since he killed a sheriff's deputy as a 17-year-old in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1963.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, said that "prisoners like Montgomery must be given the opportunity to show their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and if it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored."

Kennedy said states do not have to go so far as to resentence people serving life terms. Instead, the states can offer parole hearings with no guarantee of release.

Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania have more than 1,000 people serving life sentences for murders they committed before their 18th birthday, according to Michigan's Supreme Court filing in Montgomery's case. They are among the few states that have refused to extend the Supreme Court's ruling from 2012.

Monday's decision does not expressly foreclose judges from sentencing teenagers to a lifetime in prison. But the Supreme Court has previously said such sentences should be rare, and only for the most heinous crimes.

In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the ruling "is just a devious way of eliminating life without parole for juvenile offenders." Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined Scalia's dissent.

Four years ago, the justices struck down automatic life sentences with no chance of release for teenage killers, but did not answer then whether the ruling in Miller v. Alabama should be extended retroactively to Montgomery and hundreds of other inmates whose convictions are final.

In the 5-4 decision in 2012, Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority that judges weighing prison terms for young offenders must take into account "the mitigating qualities of youth," among them immaturity and the failure to understand fully the consequences of their actions.

Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the 2012 decision barring automatic life sentences for young killers, but he joined the majority on Monday along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Kagan.

Through legislative action or court rulings, 18 states have allowed inmates like Montgomery to be given new prison sentences or to ask for their release, according to The Sentencing Project. Louisiana is among seven states that had declined to apply the Supreme Court ruling retroactively.

The outcome in Montgomery's case is the latest in a line of Supreme Court decisions that have limited states in the way they punish juveniles. Kennedy also wrote the 2005 decision that outlawed the death penalty for juveniles. The justices also have barred life without parole sentences for people convicted of crimes other than murder that were committed before they turned 18.

The court often applies groundbreaking decisions in criminal law retroactively. Kennedy rejected Louisiana's argument that the Alabama case should not be viewed as quite that important because the court only declared unconstitutional such sentences where judges lack discretion, and specifically did not bar judges from sentencing juveniles to life in prison after considering individual circumstances.

Montgomery's case highlights some of the problems that inmate advocates say plague the criminal justice system generally. Montgomery is African-American, and he was tried for killing the white deputy in a time of racial tension and reported cross burnings in Baton Rouge.

The State Times newspaper of Baton Rouge ran a front-page headline after Montgomery's arrest: "Negro Held in Deputy's Murder Here." The story noted that "more than 60 Negroes were detained" in a parish-wide manhunt.

The Louisiana Supreme Court threw out Montgomery's first conviction because he did not get a fair trial. He was convicted and sentenced to life after a second trial.

The case is Montgomery v. Louisiana, 14-280.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/25/supreme-court-justices-extend-bar-on-automatic-life-terms-for-teenagers.html?intcmp=hplnws

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #62 on: January 28, 2016, 11:38:40 AM »
Justice Scalia Calls Out A Colleague For Flip-Flopping On Juvenile Justice
"Mission accomplished," he snapped at Justice Kennedy.
01/28/2016

Justice Antonin Scalia predicted some liberal implications down the road. He's been right on that before.

Justice Antonin Scalia didn't make it to the Supreme Court this week, but he did leave a snippy note for Justice Anthony Kennedy in a major juvenile justice case decided Monday.

The decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana made retroactive a 2012 ruling that said it's unconstitutional to automatically sentence children to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Monday's decision split the court 6-3, with Kennedy writing for the majority and Scalia for the dissenters.

What the decision means in practice is that potentially thousands of lifers -- adults who were sentenced to die in prison for crimes they committed as kids -- may be granted hearings at which they can argue they should receive mercy.

Scalia wasn't happy with the ruling, as he hasn't been in other cases where the court has shown a little leniency to certain classes of offenders. To explain his beef, he gave Kennedy a history lesson -- along with his usual sarcasm and snide commentary.

First, he went back to the 2012 decision, Miller v. Alabama, which prohibits sentences of life without the possibility of parole for "all but the rarest of children, those whose crimes reflect irreparable corruption."

In that ruling, Scalia said, the Supreme Court had bent over backward to restrict the states as little as possible.

He quoted directly from Miller: "Our decision does not categorically bar a penalty for a class of offenders or type of crime. Instead, it mandates only that a sentencer follow a certain process -- considering an offender's youth and attendant characteristics -- before imposing a particular penalty."

In other words, Scalia said, all the 2012 decision did was tell states that they must guarantee youthful defendants a procedure at the time of trial in which they might be granted a chance for future release. Nothing more, nothing less.

Justice Anthony Kennedy was the target of Scalia's legal ire this time around.

But Scalia said that Kennedy's opinion in the new case dances around this clear language in an effort to make Miller apply retroactively. In so doing, Scalia charged, the court goes beyond the original decision, "rewriting" it in such a way that it now imposes a heavy burden on states.

"How wonderful," he mused, before contending that courts now face the "knotty legal question" of how to go back in time with every single once-youthful offender who's now serving life, to consider re-sentencing them to a less punitive term -- all while weighing whether the inmate was incorrigible at the time of the crime. (Henry Montgomery, the man at the center of the case, was sentenced nearly 50 years ago.)

"What silliness," Scalia said, deriding the new regime as "a practical impossibility."

Of course, Kennedy's majority opinion offered a way to deal with the impracticalities -- by granting parole hearings in which the board may focus on who the inmates are now, not who they were as teenagers. That kind of micromanagement really set off Scalia, for here he saw an agenda at work.

"This whole exercise, this whole distortion of Miller, is just a devious way of eliminating life without parole for juvenile offenders," he declared.

Then came the coup de grâce.

Scalia pointed Kennedy to the latter's own majority opinion in the landmark Roper v. Simmons, which held in 2005 that sentencing juveniles to the death penalty is unconstitutional. In that case, Kennedy wrote that life without parole remained a severe enough alternative for those youths the state could no longer kill.

"How could the majority -- in an opinion written by the very author of Roper -- now say that punishment is also unconstitutional?" Scalia wondered, essentially accusing Kennedy of flip-flopping on life without parole.

"And then, in Godfather fashion," Scalia continued, "the majority makes state legislatures an offer they can't refuse: Avoid all the utterly impossible nonsense we have prescribed by simply permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole."

Not that Scalia never flip-flops himself. But he has a point here: Sending all those lifers to the parole board sounds much easier than trying to conduct proper re-sentencing hearings in so many old cases.

Plus, it is anyone's guess what lower courts will do with the Supreme Court's new "permanent incorrigibility" requirement for sentencing youth to die in prison. It sounds like a high standard, one that will likely lead to heaps of litigation over which youthful offenders should or shouldn't face life without parole. (Which, it should be noted, remains constitutional.)

If discouraging life without parole was the majority's intent all along, then Scalia's closing words could well reverberate: "Mission accomplished."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scalia-kennedy-juvenile-justice_us_56a8ea1fe4b0947efb661ba7

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #63 on: September 30, 2016, 02:48:38 PM »
14-Year-Old Boy Charged in Father's Killing, School Shooting
Friday, 30 Sep 2016

A 14-year-old South Carolina boy was charged as a juvenile Friday with murder and three counts of attempted murder after authorities say he killed his father and opened fire on students at a playground, wounding three people.

The boy did not show any emotion as he walked into the courtroom wearing a yellow jumpsuit. He did not have handcuffs or leg shackles on. A judge ordered the teen to continue to be held.

His mother sat on the front row during the brief hearing and left the courtroom sobbing and leaning on another woman.

The Associated Press typically does not identify juveniles charged with crimes. Authorities have not released a motive for the school shooting or killing.

Authorities say the teen shot his 47-year-old father at their home on Wednesday afternoon before driving a pickup truck 3 miles down a country road to Townville Elementary. The teen — who is not old enough to have a driver's license — had to make only two turns to arrive at the red brick school, where he crashed the truck, got out and started firing during recess.
 
Bullets struck two students and a first-grade teacher, and the building was immediately placed on lock down.

Anderson 4 Superintendent Joanne Avery said staff saved lives by flawlessly implementing active-shooter training drills conducted with students at Townville Elementary, most recently as just last week.

Though shot in the shoulder, the teacher "was with-it enough" to close the door, lock it and barricade the students, Avery said.

"If he'd gotten in the school, it would've been a different scenario," she said.

The shooter then fired toward students on the playground but missed. A teacher who heard the first gunshot was able to get those students safely inside, Avery said.

Relatives of one of the wounded, 6-year-old Jacob Hall, said he remained on life support in a hospital. His family issued a statement late Thursday saying the boy sustained a major brain injury due to the amount of blood he lost after being shot in the leg.

His older brother, Gerald Gambrell, told The Greenville News that the family is "hoping for a miracle."

A sign outside a diner conveyed the sentiments of an entire community: "Pray for Jacob. Pray for Townville."

The shot teacher and another student who was hit in the foot were treated and released from a hospital, officials said.

Classes are scheduled to resume at the school Monday.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/South-Carolina-School-Shooting-Charged-Juvenile/2016/09/30/id/751086/#ixzz4LmJLfujX

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #64 on: April 22, 2021, 06:11:20 PM »
Supreme Court Rejects Restrictions On Life Without Parole For Juveniles
April 22, 2021
NINA TOTENBERG

The U.S. Supreme Court's new conservative majority made a U-turn on Thursday, ruling by a 6-3 vote, that a judge need not make a finding of "permanent incorrigibility" before sentencing a juvenile offender to life without parole.

It was the first time in almost two decades that the high court has deviated from rules establishing more leniency for juvenile offenders, even those convicted of murder.

At the center of the case was Brett Jones, now 31, who was 15 when he stabbed his grandfather to death during a fight about Jones' girlfriend. He was convicted of murder, and a judge sentenced him to life without parole.

"In such a case, a discretionary sentencing system is both constitutionally necessary and constitutionally sufficient," the court's conservative justices wrote.

Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said: "As this case again demonstrates, any homicide, and particularly a homicide committed by an individual under 18, is a horrific tragedy for all involved and for all affected."

He added: "Determining the proper sentence in such a case raises profound questions of morality and social policy. The States, not the federal courts, make those broad moral and policy judgments in the first instance when enacting their sentencing laws. And state sentencing judges and juries then determine the proper sentence in individual cases in light of the facts and circumstances of the offense, and the background of the offender."

Over the past two decades, the law on juvenile sentencing has changed significantly. The Supreme Court — primed by research that shows the brains of juveniles are not fully developed, and that they are likely to lack impulse control — has issued a half dozen opinions holding that juveniles are less culpable than adults for their acts. And the court has also ruled that some of the harshest punishments for acts committed by children are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

After striking down the death penalty for juvenile offenders, the court, in a series of decisions, limited life without parole sentences to the rarest cases — those juvenile offenders convicted of murder who are so incorrigible that there is no hope for their rehabilitation.

But all of those decisions were issued when the makeup of the court was quite different than it is now. This case was the first time the court has heard arguments in a juvenile sentencing case with three Trump appointees on the bench, including new Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Previously, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018, repeatedly was the deciding vote in cases involving life sentences and other harsh punishments for juvenile offenders. But with Kennedy retired and replaced by Kavanaugh, and with Ginsburg replaced by Barrett, the court in this case indicated that it is not inclined to go the extra mile to protect juvenile offenders from the harshest punishments.

"It's like the wind was blowing one way and now it's blowing in the opposite direction," says Donald Ayer, a former prosecutor and deputy attorney general in Republican administrations. He and other former prosecutors and judges, including two former Republican U.S. Attorneys General, filed a brief siding with Jones in this case.

Jones was originally sentenced to life without parole in 2004, but when the Supreme Court ruled that those, like Jones, who committed crimes when they were minors could not be automatically sentenced to life terms, he had to be resentenced. By then, he had spent a decade in prison, had graduated from high school, and earned a record as a model prisoner.

At his resentencing hearing, the judge did consider Jones' youth at the time of the crime, but again sentenced him to life without parole. The judge did not make any finding that Jones was so incorrigible that he had no hope of rehabilitation.

Jones' lawyer appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending that consideration of a defendant's youth is not enough and that Jones, now in his 30s, should have at least a chance at parole because he has shown he is capable of rehabilitation.

Twenty-five states ban life without parole for juveniles entirely. And six more states do not have anyone serving that sentence for a crime committed when a juvenile. But 19 states do allow life without parole for juvenile murderers.

In a withering dissent Thursday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor used language from Justice Kavanaugh's past opinions to write that the court's decision was "an abrupt break from precedent." She accused he majority of using "contortions" and "distortions" to "circumvent" legal precedent. The majority, she said, "is fooling no one."

The court's previous rulings, she wrote, require that most children be spared from punishments that give "no chance for fulfillment outside prison walls" and "no hope." She quoted Jones as saying at his resentencing hearing, "I've pretty much taken every avenue that I could possibly take ... to rehabilitate myself ... I can't change what I've done. I can just try to show ... I've become a grown man."

Thursday's ruling will certainly make it more difficult for juvenile offenders like Jones to show judges they deserve another chance at freedom somewhere down the road, says Cardozo Law School's Kathryn Miller. "It's going to be much harder to convince judges" that evidence of rehabilitation is relevant, she says.

"A lot of times these judges really want to still focus on the facts of the crime" even though it is years or decades later, she said. "They're not interested in the rehabilitation narrative."

Neither, it seems, is the newly constituted conservative Supreme Court majority.

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989822872/supreme-court-rejects-restrictions-on-life-without-parole-for-juveniles

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #65 on: April 22, 2021, 06:45:37 PM »
Supreme Court Rejects Restrictions On Life Without Parole For Juveniles
April 22, 2021
NINA TOTENBERG

The U.S. Supreme Court's new conservative majority made a U-turn on Thursday, ruling by a 6-3 vote, that a judge need not make a finding of "permanent incorrigibility" before sentencing a juvenile offender to life without parole.

It was the first time in almost two decades that the high court has deviated from rules establishing more leniency for juvenile offenders, even those convicted of murder.

At the center of the case was Brett Jones, now 31, who was 15 when he stabbed his grandfather to death during a fight about Jones' girlfriend. He was convicted of murder, and a judge sentenced him to life without parole.

"In such a case, a discretionary sentencing system is both constitutionally necessary and constitutionally sufficient," the court's conservative justices wrote.

Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said: "As this case again demonstrates, any homicide, and particularly a homicide committed by an individual under 18, is a horrific tragedy for all involved and for all affected."

He added: "Determining the proper sentence in such a case raises profound questions of morality and social policy. The States, not the federal courts, make those broad moral and policy judgments in the first instance when enacting their sentencing laws. And state sentencing judges and juries then determine the proper sentence in individual cases in light of the facts and circumstances of the offense, and the background of the offender."

Over the past two decades, the law on juvenile sentencing has changed significantly. The Supreme Court — primed by research that shows the brains of juveniles are not fully developed, and that they are likely to lack impulse control — has issued a half dozen opinions holding that juveniles are less culpable than adults for their acts. And the court has also ruled that some of the harshest punishments for acts committed by children are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

After striking down the death penalty for juvenile offenders, the court, in a series of decisions, limited life without parole sentences to the rarest cases — those juvenile offenders convicted of murder who are so incorrigible that there is no hope for their rehabilitation.

But all of those decisions were issued when the makeup of the court was quite different than it is now. This case was the first time the court has heard arguments in a juvenile sentencing case with three Trump appointees on the bench, including new Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Previously, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018, repeatedly was the deciding vote in cases involving life sentences and other harsh punishments for juvenile offenders. But with Kennedy retired and replaced by Kavanaugh, and with Ginsburg replaced by Barrett, the court in this case indicated that it is not inclined to go the extra mile to protect juvenile offenders from the harshest punishments.

"It's like the wind was blowing one way and now it's blowing in the opposite direction," says Donald Ayer, a former prosecutor and deputy attorney general in Republican administrations. He and other former prosecutors and judges, including two former Republican U.S. Attorneys General, filed a brief siding with Jones in this case.

Jones was originally sentenced to life without parole in 2004, but when the Supreme Court ruled that those, like Jones, who committed crimes when they were minors could not be automatically sentenced to life terms, he had to be resentenced. By then, he had spent a decade in prison, had graduated from high school, and earned a record as a model prisoner.

At his resentencing hearing, the judge did consider Jones' youth at the time of the crime, but again sentenced him to life without parole. The judge did not make any finding that Jones was so incorrigible that he had no hope of rehabilitation.

Jones' lawyer appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending that consideration of a defendant's youth is not enough and that Jones, now in his 30s, should have at least a chance at parole because he has shown he is capable of rehabilitation.

Twenty-five states ban life without parole for juveniles entirely. And six more states do not have anyone serving that sentence for a crime committed when a juvenile. But 19 states do allow life without parole for juvenile murderers.

In a withering dissent Thursday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor used language from Justice Kavanaugh's past opinions to write that the court's decision was "an abrupt break from precedent." She accused he majority of using "contortions" and "distortions" to "circumvent" legal precedent. The majority, she said, "is fooling no one."

The court's previous rulings, she wrote, require that most children be spared from punishments that give "no chance for fulfillment outside prison walls" and "no hope." She quoted Jones as saying at his resentencing hearing, "I've pretty much taken every avenue that I could possibly take ... to rehabilitate myself ... I can't change what I've done. I can just try to show ... I've become a grown man."

Thursday's ruling will certainly make it more difficult for juvenile offenders like Jones to show judges they deserve another chance at freedom somewhere down the road, says Cardozo Law School's Kathryn Miller. "It's going to be much harder to convince judges" that evidence of rehabilitation is relevant, she says.

"A lot of times these judges really want to still focus on the facts of the crime" even though it is years or decades later, she said. "They're not interested in the rehabilitation narrative."

Neither, it seems, is the newly constituted conservative Supreme Court majority.

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989822872/supreme-court-rejects-restrictions-on-life-without-parole-for-juveniles

Stabbed his grandfather with a knife that broke, so he used a steak knife to kill him, stabbing at least 8 times. 

The neck tat is a nice touch.  If he's truly rehabilitated, he's making prison safer for other inmates.

https://www.wtva.com/content/news/Mississippi-Supreme-Court-dismisses-appeal-in-Lee-County-murder-case-501584021.html

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #66 on: March 24, 2023, 04:35:33 PM »
Florida teen sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing 13-year-old classmate
By Melissa Alonso and Zoe Sottile, CNN
Updated:  March 24, 2023

A judge sentenced Aiden Fucci – the Florida teenager convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing a 13-year-old over 100 times in 2021 – to life in prison on Friday.

Fucci, 16, entered his guilty plea in February 2023 at a hearing intended to get jury selection for his trial underway, according to CNN’s previous reporting. Fucci was 14 years old when he brutally killed classmate Tristyn Bailey in the woods in St. Johns County in northeastern Florida. He was charged as an adult.

During Friday’s sentencing, Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith said he took into account several factors when making his decision, including Fucci’s young age, the “heightened level” of premeditation, and that he was the “sole participant” who was not pressured by anyone to commit the “devastating crime.” He noted that Fucci was considered of “average maturity” by his peers and that he understood the consequences of his actions.

Aiden Fucci, 16, pleaded guilty to first degree murder, authorities said.

Bailey “suffered a painful and horrifying death from someone she trusted,” said Smith before announcing the sentence Friday.

He described the victim as an “energetic, happy child.”

“The loss which you have clearly suffered is unimaginable,” the judge said to Bailey’s family and friends. “Sometimes family members hope or expect that whatever the sentence is, that somehow or another that’s going to heal or provide closure.”

“I cannot provide a closure to this,” he went on. “It may close a chapter, but … I cannot bring her back.”

“You still have a lot of healing to do,” the judge said to tearful loved ones. “Her spirit lives on through each and every one of you.”

Fucci will have 30 days to appeal the sentence if he intends to do so, the judge said.

Bailey’s body was found on May 9, 2021, after her family had reported her missing earlier that day. She had been stabbed 114 times and sustained 49 defensive wounds to her head, hands, and arms, according to the state attorney.

The prosecutor said that Fucci had told witnesses that he intended to stab someone to death in the woods. Additionally, Fucci’s DNA was found on Bailey’s body, according to CNN’s previous reporting.

Following the sentencing, the victim’s father, Forrest Bailey, shared a touching message for his murdered daughter.

“Tristyn, I wanted to let you know we are so extremely proud of the person that you were in your time here,” he said.

“When you went out into the world, you gave it your very best. You should be proud of the friend that you were, the teammate you were, and what you left behind,” the father of five said. “We love you. We will continue to hold you in our hearts – and we will always be the ‘Bailey seven.’”

Forrest Bailey thanked the prosecutor, sheriff, and judge for the life sentence. He also asked people to be kind to members of Fucci’s family.

At Friday’s sentencing, the judge noted that while Fucci showed some potential for rehabilitation, the crime was “extraordinary.”

“His behavior was so unusual compared to individuals his age that there is a poor prognosis for rehabilitation,” he said.

He called the case the “most difficult and shocking case” that St. Johns County had encountered. Smith added that the crime was especially troubling because it had “no motive.”

“This was not done out of greed, it was not done in retaliation, retribution, or revenge, it was not a crime of passion, it was not a crime that was committed because he felt rejected by her. It was not done in a fit of uncontrollable anger. There was no reason. There was no purpose,” he went on. “It was done for no other reason than to satisfy this defendant’s internal desire to feel what it was like to kill someone.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/us/aiden-fucci-sentencing-tristyn-bailey-stabbing/index.html

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #67 on: March 24, 2023, 07:21:22 PM »
When someone that young commits a senseless murder, there really is no hope for rehabilitation.  Look at Lionel Tate.  He should have never been released.

Dos Equis

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Re: Prosecutors seek waiver to charge boy, 15, with murder
« Reply #68 on: August 09, 2023, 05:02:54 PM »
I have no idea what to do with a kid this young who commits a crime like this.  Lock the parents up?

Virginia 6-year-old's chilling words after shooting 1st grade teacher during class revealed in unsealed docs
The boy allegedly bragged about possibly killing Richneck Elementary School teacher Abigail Zwerner, newly unsealed warrants allege
By Danielle Wallace | Fox News
Published August 9, 2023

. . .

"I shot that b---- dead," the boy said on Jan. 6, 2023, just moments after the shooting, according to Amy Kovac, a reading specialist at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Kovac rushed into the classroom afterward and restrained the child until police arrived.

. . .

https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-6-year-olds-chilling-words-shooting-first-grade-teacher-class-revealed-unsealed-docs