Discussion for article #231335
This is America. When you have an axe to grind against someone, you shoot them. With a gun. The fact that this young girl used a knife instead of a gun proves, conclusively, that she is not competent to stand trial.
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The definition of competent to stand trial is so thoroughly unintuitive, if we’re talking about still being competent despite the crime having ostensibly been committed to please a fictional character. Oh, wait, religion. But even so.
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Well, these girls are white; the victim survived (thank God) and it’s not South Carolina. But the judge is a radical republican and former political operative.
So look for a phlegm-filled appeal to return to the Death Penalty as a consequence; and a Stern ‘Family Values’ Lecture from that quarter.
¨Wisconsin law requires suspects in severe crimes to be charged as adults if they are at least 10 years old.¨
Man, that is so fucked up. With what we know of the teenage brain, it’s positively medieval.
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It is also a double standard. The individual is treated as an adult by default when it comes to criminal culpability and punishment, but when it comes to any of the rights and privileges associated with legally being an adult they are still treated as a minor child be default.
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This really is one of the sadder cases I have ever seen. It belongs in Juvenile court, I don’t know how Wisconsin law can be so backwards given what we know about brain development. They thought they were pleasing a fictional internet meme! Clearly have difficulties differentiating between fantasy and reality.
There needs to be justice for the victim, no doubt. I’m just not convinced putting a 12 year old in prison for the next 30 years is accomplishing that task. You want justice? Get the perpetrators mental help. Help them become productive members of society as adults. Don’t throw them in the for profit prison system.
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Not sure if you were intending the reference, but this brought to mind a BBC story I read earlier today:
“US judge overturns 1940s conviction of executed boy”
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And what do they do with these 10yo’s tried as adults? Throw them in adult prison? Who the hell’s in charge here!?!?!
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Putting aside, for the moment, the question of the girl’s age, and the bizarre, child-like motivation for the attack, I was struck by this argument for the defense:
[she] lacks an understanding of the nuances of the criminal justice system.
That should never be an issue. That’s why defendants have attorneys.
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