Aren’t you curious about some of the cases that were mentioned in the articles? What ended up happening? Are the juveniles still in jail? Have any of them been executed? Have any of them been paroled or released? What are they like now? Have they been interviewed recently?
For this week’s discussion board, research two topics or cases. You might research: Robert Acuna case (Liptak article) , Christopher Simmons (Liptak), the Supreme Court ruling about the death penalty & the 71 Juveniles on Death Row (Liptak), Lionel Tate (Lundstrom), Thomas Preciado (Lundstrom), Nathaniel Brazil (Lundstrom& Thompson), killing of two Dartmouth professors (Lundstrom), Propostion 21 in California (Lundstrom), etc.
Write about the two cases you researched and what you found interesting. Make sure to write a developed papragraph for each case. Make sure to cite your sources! Wikipedia is not a source!
Jean Tepperman in “Proposition 21;Juvenilie crime instigative”(January –February 2000) agues the good and the bad of Proposition 21 in California. Tepperman mention that it would discourage crime but it be easy to send minors back to prison if the probation the violations. They couldn’t be allowed to be released to parents before the trail. Even though it wouldn’t hurt programs that work to prevent youths from leading lives of crimes it still cost millions of dollars. It will increases the plenty from six months to a year and for serious crime they could have death penalty. It put 14 or older into adult crimes and prisons. It would also allow charges for murder and sex offenders.
I found this article very informative and persuasive. I found it interesting that they believed that 14 were the magical number. This article almost persuasive me to change my mind. But in the end I still strongly believe that we should not try minors as adult. They are just not fully ready for the responsible.
In “Another Florida teenager receives harsh adult prison sentence” by Kate Randall breaks the sadden news of 14 year old Brazill sentence to 28 years in prison, without parole. He was 13 years old when he shot his seventh grade teacher. It is part of the on going problem in American; should we try children as adult? Brazil and his defense never denied that he shot the teacher but the claim that it was accident. He thought the safety was on when he pointed at the teacher. With political establishment if you do adult crime you play like adult. They never look at Brazill mental ability.
I found it so heart breaking that he got 28 years in prison. I believe that he didn’t understand about the gun and it was accident. I think it wrong that courts don’t try kids at the age that they committed the crime. Also people need to think of the charged mental ability and how they brain thought at that time.
Through an article published by The International Justice Project, I found that after review by the Supreme Court, the death penalty for minors under 18 was found unconstitutional. Christopher Simmons, for example, was sentenced to die after he kidnapped, bound, gagged, and robbed his neighbor, pushing her still tied body into a river to drown. However, in his case the death penalty was vacated and he will now serve life in prison after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that giving a minor the death penalty was against the 8th amendment “evolving standards of decency,”
http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm
Nathaniel Brazill, a Florida teen who fatally shot his favorite teacher in 2001 was worried that he may serve life in prison, but TIME magazine published that “Nate will serve 28 years, followed by another seven years of house arrest and probation.” Brazill, who had been a likeable honor student, was also ordered to get his GED during his sentence and attend anger management courses. The sentence has already made Brazill a “hardened” version of himself, but families of Barry Grunow, the man he shot, claim that a murder is a murder and that Brazill got off easy.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
The first case i decided to look into was Lionel Tate’s case. As it turns out, he was originally sentenced to life, but “an appeals court reversed his conviction in late 2003, saying he should have been mentally evaluated before trial” (Aguayo 1). His was then released with one year of house arrest and ten years of parole. During his house arrest, he was found out in the streets at 2a.m. with a knife, so five more years were added to his parole and the judge gave him a final warning. The in 2005, he was arrested again for robbying a pizza delievery man and stealing his car. Because he plead guilty, the judge only sentenced him to 10-30 years in prison. I found it interesting how no matter how many chances he recieved, he just always went back to crime, and im also curious as to if he was ever tested for any mental disabilities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02tate.html
The next case i looked into was Nathanial Brazill’s case. Nate recieved a sentence of 28 years in prison with another 7 years on house arrest and probation. Through the article, it was really suprising to me that Nate was actually a good student before hand having good grades, and helping others. Then when asked why he did it he answered “It just happened…I just felt like jumping into the lake and drowning myself. I was disappointed. Disappointed in myself” (Waters 1). Unlike Lionel, he really seemed to be sorry and not the type of person that would commit a crime like that, but when looking deeper into the story, his mother states that he was surrounded by alcoholism and domestic abuse at home. Its just sad to think that maybe if he had a better life at home, he ouldnt have shot his teacher.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
I researched the Robert Acuna case and learned some new details of the incident from the following website; http://thecyberseekerssociety.yuku.com/topic/1736. The first interesting thing I learned is that Robert was already supposed to appear in court for a robbery case, although he didn’t show up, which caused the suspicion of the detectives. This suggests that he had already been getting into a substantial amount of trouble. Secondly, I ready that the dead elderly man was found in the garage, while the dead woman’s body was in the kitchen. This detail had me wondering if he actually went out of his way to murder both the husband and wife apposed to just murdering them because they were interfering with his auto theft. Then I saw that his Robert’s mother said, “My son did not do this. My son is innocent. Every single thing that has been written, there’s been a lie in it — every single thing. There is a story here and you can help find who killed these people because they’re still out there.” I wonder why she believed so strongly in her sons innocence and if there really was false information given. But in the end Robert was found guilty and charger with capital murder.
Next I researched the Chrsitopher Simmons case and found some information from the following website; http://ccadp.org/christophersimmons.htm. I will list a few of the the mitigating (vocabulary word!!!) factors the website presented. First, I read that Christopher was abused by his father physically and emotionally, while also led to believe that his mother didn’t love him. On top of that, he was a minor at the age of seventeen and apparently under the instruction of a man who, in the past, would have teens commit crimes for him and then bring him the profits. Then the website stated that he had a mental illness called Schizotypal disorder along with being under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time the crime was committed. The result of the trial was the death penalty being ruled unconstitutional for juveniles.
I decided to look into Nathaniel Brazill first. He was fourteen when he shot and killed his favorite teacher, and convicted of second degree murder. The article, “Nate Brazill, Sentenced to Grow Up in Prison”, by Tim Roche (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html), outlines the details of his punishment, saying that he was to “serve 28 years, followed by another seven years of house arrest and probation.” Many believe that Nate got off lucky, and should have been sentenced to 40 years or even a life sentence, saying “murder is murder”. Nate later expressed remorse for his actions, saying he didn’t mean to pull the trigger. Whether he is sincere or not is up to the individual to decide, but his 28-year sentence remains regardless.
The second interesting topic from the in-class articles that I researched was Proposition 21, which relates to juvenile justice. According to the LA Times article, “Prop 21: No Youth Crime Remedy” ,(http://articles.latimes.com/2000/feb/22/local/me-1309), “Proposition 21 would overhaul juvenile justice laws in California to send more youths into adult courts, jails and prisons.” The article also states that ” there’s no evidence that it would enhance public safety”, showing a negative bias toward this proposition. I found the topic in general to be interesting. Would incarcerating juveniles really be better and more cost effective than putting them through rehabilitation programs that are found in juvenile detention centers? I think not, and this article makes a strong argument of the same opinion.
The first youth I researched about was Lionel Tate who was convicted of at age 12 of murdering a year old girl for practicing a wrestling move. What I researched was where he was now and what he was up to. Turns out on the Washington Post after being released on probation he has also been charged for other crimes like being found with a knife and robbing a pizza man with a gun. And the judge stated, “In plain English, you’ve run out of chances,” so currently he is being sentenced for 30 more years in prison.
For the next child I researched Thomas Preciado and his current life to find out a little more on his case. Whether it is right or wrong to try children as adults Preciado still murdered someone. Whether what age he is some punishment and consequences are deserved for his actions. After reading his article by Kristin M. on Appealdemacrat.com it makes me disappointed that people are trying to get so sidetrack to ignore the fact that he murdered someone but everyone is protesting he is a minor being tried as an adult.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/ramirez-36671-preciado-dhillon.html
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
I first read an article about Lionel Tate’s life after his first run in with the law when he murdered a 6-year-old girl at the age of 12 and wasn’t put into jail, just on parole. While his parole was going well, he was caught carrying a knife with him so he was charged with 5 more years on probation. For the final strike, he was caught with holding a gun and robbing a pizza delivery man and was final sentenced to 30 years in prison. I found it interesting that they never sent him to jail before when he had done other hideous crimes, even when he was 12 and murdered a child, he was not tried for anything besides probation and parole. I found it great that they finally did sentence him to around 30 years in jail because he really deserves to be punished for what he did, not just this time but times before also.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
I also read on how Nathaniel Brazill, the one who came back to his middle school on the last day of school and killed his teacher because he threw him out of class, 11 years after the incident and in jail. He was sentenced to 28 in jail for the murder. He claims that he is very sorry for what he did, he has his GED and when he gets out of jail he wants to go to school and become and lawyer. He thinks that he shouldn’t have been charged as an adult for the horrible crime that he committed when he was a child. He also talked about how whenever his sister that is now in middle school comes in to see him at the prison he gives her very good advice about staying in school and to do all her homework and listen to her teacher and her grandparents that take care of her. It sounds a lot like he is learning a lot from being in jail this long. I thought that it was very interesting his attitude in this interview and how he has high hopes when he gets out of prison and what he wants to do with his life.
http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/nathaniel-brazill-11-years-later
First I researched further into the lionel Tate case and found that he later got in more trouble. After being set free basically after killing the 6 year old girl, he was caught with a knife and received another chance of freedom which he ended up losing after being caught trying to rob a pizza man with a gun. He was then sentenced to prison for 30 years which will be most of his adult life. I found this information on the website; http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
Next I resaerched further upon the Brazill case where I learned that he felt much remorse for the shooting and that his personality dosnt fit that of a killer at all. He seems like he is a civilized person. He was an honor student and teachers and kids liked him, but I found out as well that he was abused at home and his home life was not good at all. Found the information on the website; http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
I researched Robert Acuna’s case in which he murdered two elderly neighbors then stole their car. From the information I’ve gathered off of http://www.deathrow-usa.us/TXjuveniles.htm Acuna’s sentence was altered to ‘commuted for life’ meaning he was no longer subjected to death row, along with 17 other juvenile offenders on death row in Harris County, although, I was unable to discover any recent information on Acuna.
However, the second case I researched, that of Lionel Tate and being tried as an adult at the age of 12 contained a plethora of information. According to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html Tate was found not guilty and put on probation until years later he was found with a knife on him, adding five more years to the probation, but no jail time. Then, one year ago Tate was arrested for having a gun and robbing a pizza delivery man and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. All of these crimes beg the question, is blaming television violence a valid excuse for acting violently? How much blame should’ve been put on the twelve year old boy? Although I do not believe he should’ve been tried as an adult, it seems like more action should’ve been taken regarding this case.
1) I read an article about Robert Acuna that summarized what happened and also gave varying viewpoints from each side of the case. I can’t understand how anyone could kill such a poor innocent elderly person, but he did. People made the argument that he was only 17, but at 17 you clearly know what you’re doing when you shoot two old people and steal their jewelry. According to his parents he was raised in a loving home with apparent problems. At the age of 17 with no background of issues besides other assaults, it is clear that he is a cold-hearted person. I believe the sentencing is correct and he should be in prison for life, I don’t believe there is any way he could have been rehabilitated. The daughter of the victims told him not to think of who he killed before he went to sleep but to think of how much he has affected his parents lives. I think that’s a wise statement.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
2) The second article I read was about the sentencing of Tolluch and Parker, the teenagers that killed the Dartmouth professors. This case really expresses what happens in trials. Jurors can and will judge murderers for how they appear in court. Tolluch who was given life in prison was expressionless and Parker who was given 25 years in prison was full of tears. Parker was said to be the accomplice and younger than Tolluch. It all seems pretty crazy to kill people for a trip to Australia. They boys were both clearly out of their mind and not thinking through consequences at all. It appears to be that Parker has regret and I think the sentencing is right to give him another shot at life. For Tolluch, his master plan failed and at 18 he must have had serious mental issues to think this would work. I definitely agree with the sentencing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/us/teenagers-are-sentenced-for-killing-two-professors.html?ref=robertwtulloch
I first watched a video about the current life of Nathaniel Brazil who killed his teacher when he was 13 year of age. He has been living in prison for 11 years and will be released when he is 40. He plans on going to law school to become a lawyer. He now believes that he didnt know what he was thinking and that he was just a kid when it happend. He understands he made a mistake and committed the crime out of impulse. He now wishes he could talk to the widow of the teacher and explain to him how sorry he is. I believe he really has changed since then and that being a child you should not be tried as an adult because you do not know the consequences of your actions. http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/nathaniel-brazill-11-years-later
The second artical i read was about a young boy named Simmons who murdered a young girl at the age of 17. He supposedly drowned her and the police found her body bruised beaten and taped up. This case questioned if the boy should be sentenced to death. As a juvenile he was not allowed to be sentanced to death due to the laws of the supreme court but if he was tried as a addult he would be. when they reviewd the case the refused to include the informatiion of his past such as being beaten daily by his step father, his drug abuse problems and alcohol problems and his possibility of a mental illness. I feel that when you are a juvenile being tried as an adult the court should look at your background to see if there were any reasons you would have done what you did because kids act on impulse and theyarent mature enough to think through their actions.
When i looked up the Robert Acuna case I found an article about the 72 teenagers on death row. In the article they talked about the Robert Acuna case and he was the latest person to be sentenced to death. The truly sad part is that he could have avoided this if he was more mature in the court room. Later, the supreme court has spared the lives of those 72 juveniles that were on death row including Robert Acuna because the death penalty for teenagers is unconstitutional and considered cruel and unusual punishment.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BUE/is_10_137/ai_n17208146/?tag=content;col1
Once again in the Christopher Simmons case he was tried as an adult and was givin the death penalty. Luckily, his life was spared because he was under 18 when he commited the crime. In the firs paragraph of the article they said that for a second time in this decade that they had to look under the eighth and fourteenth amendment to see if it was constitional to execute juveniles as adults. More and more juveniles are being givin the death penalty but lucky their lives are being spared.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-633.ZO.html
The Robert Acuna case was really caught my attention. I wanted to find out more about it so I went to http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/04/national/04juvenile.html there I had found out a lot about the case. What I found interesting was how they had said that “His brooding and volatile adolescent demeanor may have hurt more than helped, and the Houston jury sentenced him to die”. The reason why I found that interesting is because, Robert Acuna was acting strange, he didn’t seem to care what would happened to him. He laughed at everything prosecutor Renee Magee would say. They didn’t take him serious and sentenced him to die. I couldn’t believe that Acuna would act the way he did, that’s not how I would ever picture someone to act after killing two people. No one would ever take a killer serious especially someone who didn’t seem to care from the beginning.
Nathaniel Brazil was the second case that caught my attention. I went on http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/nathaniel-brazill-11-years-later . Something interesting I found out about his case was that “He’s received his GED and a paralegal certificate while in prison, and now spends time in the library working on legal matters, pondering a criminal justice system that treated a child as an adult in a murder case.” I thought that was interesting because, Nathaniel is trying to make a better life for him self. He isn’t just sitting in prison wasting more time of his life. Most prisoners don’t do much and Nathaniel seems to be trying to turn his life around . I think that’s a good thing and hopefully he will continue to study and stay out of problems.
The first case I decided to look into was the Robert Acuna case. In the article “Robert Acuna” Houston Chronicles reports that Acuna (17 at the time of the murders) was charged with first degree murder of James and Joyce Carroll. Acuna’s record shows that this isn’t his first run in with the law. Acuna was just recently charged with aggravated assault of a 76 yr old man and was due for court on different charges the day that the Carroll’s were found dead. After murdering the couple Acuna fled to Dallas with their credit cards, jewelry, and family car. 5 days later Acuna was arrested in a Dallas motel room with the murder weapon found in the car. I thought about whether Acuna was in jail for the other crimes he committed before this one, I also thought about how he got the gun. Where did he get it from? And why did he actually kill the Carrolls? In all the articles I read about this case I didn’t read about why he did it.
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
The second case I decided to look into was the Thomas Preciado case. In the article “Teen found guilty of YC murder Preciado jury deliberates only 90 minutes” written by Harold Kruger, he states that Preciado was charged with first degree murder of a local Mini-Mart clerk, and also second degree robbery and burglary charges. I thought it was strange that when he committed the crime he was highly influenced by some robbery TV program. Obviously this kid was not right in the head and I wondered if they ever tested him for being mentally instable. I looked up the after affects of his crime and his mother only gets to visit him twice a week for 30 minutes.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43467-dhillon-murder.html#ixzz1mDb5pozU
I researched the Robert Acuna case a lot and found and interesting website that revealed that all of the offenders from Texas, including Acuna were taken off death row. (http://www.deathrow-usa.us/TXjuveniles.htm) I personally believe that juveniles shouldn’t be tried as adults and by no means should receive the death penalty. I thought we were past the days of Hammurabi’s Code of “an eye for and eye.” We don’t need to kill someone no matter what they do. It’s just inhumane for a person to kill someone else out of vengeance. I also researched Lionel Tate and found that he would be tried again for his murder at the age of 12-years-old. (http://www.lioneltate.us/media/case.htm) I think that it is a good idea for the jurors to see how he has progressed in jail and what he now thinks of what he did. I think that we will see that he feels great remorse for what he did and wishes he had been more mature at age 12 and not committed the crime.
The first case I researched the Robert Acuna case. Robert shot and killed an older couple whose names were James and Joyce Carroll. He was seventeen when he committed the murder, and no one really understood why he did it. Assistant District Attorney Renee Magee said that Acuna “have evil in his heart.” Prosecutors in the case are calling for the death penalty, but Acuna will at least receive life in prison. Unfortunately Acuna’s youth was not helpful to him in this case because he seemed to not know that what he did was wrong.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
The second case that I researched was the Alyssa Bustamante case. We touched on it briefly in class and I found it very weird/interesting. Bustamante who killed a younger girl when she was fifteen, called the act “ahmazing.” Bustamante pled guilty to second-degree murder, in which she received life in prison with a possibility of parole. She pled guilty because she wanted to avoid a trial and a charge of first-degree murder which would possibly cause her to spend the rest of her life in adult prison.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8537225
The first article i read,”Manson Echo in Philly” was about this 16 year old boy who was dating a fifteen year old girl. She lured him to “trails” near the Delaware river where three other people met with her. The boy was beaten to death, struck many times with a hammer, hatchet and rocks. All bones were broken in his face but one. All four teens went to adult court and if convicted of first degree murder they will be a chance of them facing the death penalty except for the girlfriend because she was the only one under 16. In court the teens were found laughing . They didn’t tell in the article why they did what they did. I found this so disturbing, i don’t understand how people can do something so horrific. I believe all the teens should be tried as a adult to the fullest extent.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125030&page=1#.TzhPGbGPVfU
The second article i read,”Boy,12,Face grown up murder charges” was about a 12 year old boy that allegedly shot a youth shotgun at his soon to be step mother and she was eight months pregnant. While she was sleeping the police believe he went in her room shot her in the back of the head then went on to the school bus. The controversy is if he is going to be charged as an adult at eleven years old or as a juvenile, if convicted as an adult he will be facing a sentence of life with no chance of parole with two counts of murder. This article was very hard to side with, i couldn’t decide my exact opinion.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/10/pennsylvania.young.murder.defendant/?hpt=C1
I researched the verdict of the Robert Acuna case. An article published in the Houston Chronicle, discusses the details of the case and says that Robert Acuna, was indeed sentenced to death for murdering his two elderly neighbors. I think a reason that they jury chose to sentence him may be because he was 17 at the time of the crime, and 17 is very close to 18. Despite his mother’s pleading in the court room not to take away the life of her son, the jury still chose to sentence him, I found that interesting. (http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php)
I also read about the murder of the two Dartmouth professors in the article, “Teenager Arraigned in Killing Of 2 Dartmouth Professors” from the New York Times. I was surprised to find that the two suspects in the case were 16 and 17, which meant there were most likely in high school, not enrolled at Dartmouth. I read three articles and none of them had any idea as to what the boys’ motive was for so brutally stabbing the two teachers and that is what I was most interested in. (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/22/us/teenager-arraigned-in-killing-of-2-dartmouth-professors.html)
The first case I read was the one regarding the murder of two Dartmouth professors. I was a pretty interesting case, the two professors, Half and Susanne Zantop, was killed by repeated stabbings by two high school students, Robert W. Tulloch and James Parker. The two were arrested within a week of the crime, at an Indiana bus top. Both defendants were under the age of 18 and we both facing 1st degree murder charges. While interesting, most of the case didn’t make sense to me, for one was the lack of details revealed by the court. In fact there were so few evidence that were made public, that from what is known, it is hard to identify the two minors as suspects. Further research showed the motives of the two minors were to have an “adventure” and travel around the world to “start a life of crime”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/22/us/teenager-arraigned-in-killing-of-2-dartmouth-professors.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/18/us/youths-dreamed-of-adventure-but-settled-for-killing-a-couple.html?ref=halfzantop
The second case I read about was that of Lionel Tate, the 12 year old from who murdered Tiffany Eunick a six year old. The case was pretty disturbing, with the gruesome details of the death of the six year old, details that lead to the prosecution seeking the highest punishment possible, life imprisonment, without parole. I personally don’t think that Lionel Tate should be convicted with such a heavy sentence, for all the reasons mentioned in the article, which were, he did not realize the severity of his crime, he did not realize the severity of the consequence, and was incapable of defending himself in court. Furthermore it was very interesting how the defendant’s mother did not accept the plea bargain at the final phase of the trial, a bargain which would have given her son back to her in just three years.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123746&page=1#.TziBVLEgerk
The first article I researched was that of Lionel Tate. According to CNN news, “Tate, who will turn 17 Friday, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his playmate, Tiffany Eunick, and in 2001 at age 14 became the youngest person in the United States sentenced to life without parole.” I found that really interesting because Lionel was really young when he committed the crime and didn’t have the thought process of an adult yet, and the courts still tried him as an adult and gave him life in prison.
http://articles.cnn.com/2004-01-29/justice/wrestling.death
Nathaniel Brazil who brutally killed his middle-school teacher Grunow, was found guilty of second-degree murder. At first the jury thought he would be tried as an adult. If that were to have happened he would have faced life in prison without parole. Brazil was not tried as an adult because of his immaturity that was able to be seen by the jury with his quizzical looks that came across his face as the verdicts were read. What I found interesting is that if he would have acted a little bit more mature he would have faced a lifetime in prison, but having acted that way it saved him several decades.
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/5/16/225918.shtml
The first case I decided to research is that of Lionel Tate. At the young age of 12 Tate was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of 6 year olf Tiffany Eunick. What struck my attention while reading Lundstrom’s article is that Tate claimed to be mimicking his favorite tv wrestlers and didn’t know the extend of what he was doing. Tate served 3 years in a juvenile prison and, to my surprise, his “conviction was thrown out on a technicality.” This drastically reduced Tate’s sentencing. However in 2005 he violated his probation by robbing someone at gunpoint. It was sad to find out that Tate was given a “second chance” but went out and committed more crimes anyway. Tate grew up in a difficult environment but that isn’t a good enough excuse to justify his crimes. Unfortunately Tate “is going to have to wait 30 years for his third chance to come around.” http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVMartinTate90606.html
While reading about Nathaniel Brazil’s case on http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html I was surprised to read that the person he killed was not only his teacher, but “his favorite teacher.” Apparently on the last day of school Brazil was sent home early and didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to his girlfriend. This was enough to drive him to the point of murder. Some of the articles we read in class had mentioned children’s behavior in court and that they didn’t seem to realize the magnitude of their actions. In this Times article, however, it was clear that once Brazil was sentenced to 28 years in prison plus house arrest and probation, he understood the seriousness of his current state. I found it interesting that teachers were saying that Brazil not only got off easy, but that if he had killed someone like a police officer he would have definitely gotten a life sentence. I hadn’t thought about that before and it made me wonder about different sentencing depending not so much on the murder itself, but on who was murdered. It doesn’t seem fair that people claim “murder is murder” when that isn’t always the case.
The first search was to find out about Lionel Tate who got life in prison for the murder of his friend. He was let out in 2004 after he appealed his case and pleading guilty to second degree murder. In 2006, at the age of 19 he was arrested for an armed robbery of a pizza delivery boy while on probation for the murder. He is looking at 10 to 30 years in prison.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02tate.html
My second sear was for Nathaniel Brazil who was found guilty for second degree murder of his 7th grade teacher. At the age of 14 he was sentenced to 28 years. Last year he filed a federal law suit against his civil rights. He got transferred twice and put into solitary confinement for his lawsuit. He did this by himself because he got his paralegal degree.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/murderer-nathaniel-brazill-sues-claiming-civil-rights-violations-1621323.html
1. Adam Liptak in his article “Supreme Court to Rule on Executing Young Killers” he talks about Robert Acuna case. Liptak was talking about how Robert Acuna was one of the very few minors who have gotten the death sentence but it was later over turned. One of the jury members Ms. Magee said that they gave Robert Acuna to the death sentence because “He was very nonchalant, He laughed at inappropriate things. He still didn’t quite get the magnitude of everything he did.” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/04/national/04juvenile.html
2. David Stout in his article “Supreme Court Bars Death Penalty for Juvenile Killers,” is about the Christopher Simmons case. What Christopher Simmons did was he tied up his victim and drowned her. He was sentenced to death just like Robert Acuna but the Supreme Court over ruled it. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/politics/01cnd-scot.html?pagewanted=2
The first case that i researched was Lionel Tate. According to an article in the Washington Post, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html, Lionel Tate got off of the murder of a six year old girl with only a sentence of parole. Many would hope that this would change him, but he ended up going against parole by carrying a knife, then one year later robbing a pizza delivery man with a gun. Tate now will be serving most of his adulthood in prison.
The next case that I researched was the Brazill case. I chose this one because I was really interested why he would kill his “favorite” teacher, and i wanted to know how his case ended up. The article that I found in http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html, was really good, and it cleared up the case really well for me. First off, it was evident that he was remorseful of what he did, and he was too immature to be tried as an adult. Then, I can see some off the factors that led to the murder. Although he was a good student, his home life was full of substance abuse and violence. His home life added on to the denial of seeing the girl that just recently gave him his first kiss was probably an emotional overload which he couldn’t think clearly.
First, I looked into what happened to Nathaniel Brazill, and found an interesting article from the Palm Beach Post. To start, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Since that decision, he has begun to study law in prison. And using what he has learned, he has filed suits against prison officials. In fact, he filed one against the prison official Beth Cowart, was then put into solitary confinement, and punished in other ways, and then sued again for having his First Amendment rights broken with those retaliation actions. In total, he is suing for $10 million dollars — $7 mil from Cowart’s actions, and $3 mil from other officials. So, all things considered, he is doing well for himself.
(http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/murderer-nathaniel-brazill-sues-claiming-civil-rights-violations-1621323.html)
Next I looked into Lionel Tate’s case and where he is now. In an article from the New York Times, he has reportedly been released from his life imprisonment, after his case was overturned in an appeals court, and after he pleaded guilty to second-degree-murder, he received a years house arrest and 10 of probation. He then proceeded to go out and get caught by police at 2 a.m. with an 8-inch knife. From there, 5 years was added to his probation time. And even after all that, he was caught after robbing a pizza delivery-man. As of the time that the article was written, he had pleaded guilty to armed robbery, and faces between 10 and 30 years behind bars — an unfortunate path to have fallen down.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02tate.html)
I decided to research what happened to Lionel Tate. In an article of The Washington Post titled ” A Wasted Life for Lionel Tate” Andrew Cohen, enlightens us about what is currently going on with the young teenager. After Lionel slipped through the legal system receiving probation for killing a six year old girl. After this happened you would think that he would be trying to do good. However six of years ago he was found with a knife and a judge gave him a second chance adding five years to his probation. But the story doesn’t end here. Four years ago he was charged with robbing a pizza man with a gun and a judge sentenced him to thirty years in prison. Boward County Judge stated ,”In plain english, you’ve run out of chances”. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
The second case I decided to research was what had happened after the Nathaniel Brazill case. Brazill was convicted of killing his teacher when he was thirteen years old. Since then he has been living in prison for eleven years and was sentenced to live out another forty there. He has earn his GED in law and plans on becoming a lawyer when he is released. I though this was very interesting because he himself is a convicted murderer and after spending up to twenty-eight years in prison it would seem like a person like that would have some resentment of the legal system. This shows me that he can look above the system that has incarcerated him for most of his young adult life and see what is bestfor his own future even though so much of it has been taken away. http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/nathaniel-brazill-11-years-later
I was interested in the Christopher Simmons case mentioned in the Liptak article. I found this site (http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm) that outlined the case in detail. As with many of the cases we’ve read about, there were several mitigating factors including mental/physical abuse at home, alcohol and drug addictions, and even the possibility of mental illness. His aunt testified to Simmons’ abuse at home by saying that his role in the household resembled the role of a “slave”. I was shocked when I read that at a young age, Simmon’s father took him to a bar and let him have alcohol for pure amusement for him and the others seated nearby. This is proof that Mr. Simmon’s parenting was very inappropriate and Christopher hadn’t lived in a healthy environment. In his teens, Christopher was drinking, smoking marijuana, and would occasionally use mushrooms, LSD, and cocaine. He was clearly suffering from substance abuse. Not only that, but according to http://ccadp.org/christophersimmons.htm, he was also suffering from schizotypal disorder. People who have this disorder don’t’ understand relationships, which often leads to anxiety and other problems, including responding incorrectly in social circumstances. This leads me to believe that this disorder could have played a huge part in the crime he committed. Christopher Simmons may have gotten involved with crime because he didn’t know how to deal with the people or the possible peer pressure to get involved. It would save us so much money and time if we could diagnose these disorders and find help for these types of teens before lives are lost.
Also, I read further into the Lionel Tate case. The article “Youth Who Killed at 12 Will Return to Prison, but Not for Life ” by Terry Aguayo from the New York times on March 2, 2006, speaks about how he confessed that he had robbed a pizza truck, at 19-years-old, while he was on probation after an accidental murder, which happened when he was a mere 12-years-old. Also, in 2004 he was found outside of his house in the early morning hours carrying a knife with him. This makes me question how efficient the rehabilitation process is for juveniles that are not put in jail. I know twelve is a young age, but if they keep committing crimes they shouldn’t be out on the streets. It appears as though he continues to head down the wrong path and stays involved in criminal activity. Also, as we read in the Lundstrom article, he was imitating wrestling moves he had seen on TV when he murdered his 6-year-old playmate (Lundstrom 43). Television shows, violent video games, and other sources of entertainment for young kids really stick in their minds. They imitate them in their own actions. I think that more censoring of these shows and games should be taken into consideration.
I really was curious about Lionel Tate and Robert Acuna. Those interested me the most.
So Lionel Tate. Killed his 6 year old playmate when he was 12 and was convicted of first-degree murder and got 5 years in prison. Well, turns out he got parole. Yay! Well, not so much. Turns out that when he was 19 years old, he was arrested for not only breaking his probation, but for armed robbery of a pizza delivery man. He pleaded guilty and got 10-30 years in prison instead of life.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02tate.html)
Now, onto Robert Acuna. Shot an elderly couple, James Carroll, 75, and his wife, Joyce, 74 and was sentenced to death. In Texas, where the sentence was given, they had the death penalty for offenders that were still juveniles. Only 7 other states have the death penalty for such offenders. Furthermore, Acuna showed no reaction when the sentence was given. This raises questions on whether he was just confused what was going on, he didn’t know how to show it, or he knew what he did and didn’t care.
It’s a crazy world we live in.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
Source for the Acuna article
The first person I researched was Christopher Simmons; he was mentioned in the Liptak article. I his court case the only testimony given showed that he was a good and loving kid. He had bound his victim in electrical wires and duct tape but her ultimate cause of death was drowning. After the single testimony the court could not understand how a sweet boy could commit such an act. It was in part because Simmons stepfather was extremely abusive both mentally and physically. The state of Missouri has not executed Simmons because they feel it is a violation of the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution according to internationaljusticeproject.org.
The second person I researched was Lionel Tate. He was 12 years old at the time he killed a six year old by practicing his wrestling moves like he saw on TV. He was charged with first degree murder. After winning his appeal though he when on to do more crimes while on probation. First he was found with a knife which had another five years added on to his probation and then a year after that he held up a pizza delivery man at gun point and was put in prison for 30 years. He is out of chances now and looks to face most of his life in prison.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/03/09/national/main277536.shtml
1) The first article I read was about Robert Acuna from the Houston Chronicle. Acuna murdered two elderly neighbors of his, and for that he is sentenced to death by court law. What confuses me is that his parent’s said he was raised by a loving family and lived in a safe neighborhood all his life. So what caused him to do such a drastic act? The article doesn’t include his motives, and I don’t even know if the public knows what they were. But it could be possible he had to kill someone to be accepted into a gang. I assume this because witnesses said he began “project[ing] a gangster image” such as wearing gold teeth and a belt that read “pimp”. In general, I think the death penalty is too cruel and if you really wanted a fugitive to suffer you should keep in a jail cell for all his life and leave him alone with his thoughts. Another interesting point in the case, was that police found Acuna and his murder weapon in a motel. This just goes to show how irresponsible adolescents are and he didn’t even think the whole murder through.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
2) The second article I read was on Thomas Preciado. He was just 15 when he stabbed Rupinder Dhillon in1999. The boy took a knife into a store and demanded money. When it wasn’t given to him he stabbed Dhillon at least 20 times and she died later in a hospital. Now the question is whether he should have been tried in adult or juvenile court. He was in fact tried in adult court and found guilty of 1st degree murder and faces 25 years to life in prison. His uncle said, ”He shouldn’t even be in adult court. Why is he here? Because they’re loaded with money. I think Yuba City was influenced by the Dhillon family, and that’s why they moved it to over here” referring to why Preciado was tried as an adult. I personally think his murder was grisly and deserves punishment, but then again I do not know if those the murderer and victim previously knew each other, or if the boy was having a bad day etc. These cases are so difficult to have the right answer for.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43467-dhillon-murder.html
The first article I reasearched was titled Nate Brazill, Sentenced to Grow Up In Prison , a Time article, which told what prison life has been like for Nate Brazill after being sentenced to 28 years in prison for shooting his middle school teacher when he was 14. An intresting thing I learned from the article was that Brazill never had a stable living home or a proper father figure but was still considered a mild mannered, likeable kid who snapped one day and had to pay the price for the rest of his life.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
The other article I read was Teen Being Tried as An Adult, is was about a young girl being tried in a case similar to Thomas A Preciado in which a Naomi Ramirez.
1) Upon reading Tim Roche’s article on Nathaniel Brazill, ( http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html) I realized the information given in the Thompson and Lundstrom article was quite askew. Neither article we read described him as the straight A honor student, well mannered and respectable kid he was. His “one fatal mistake” of shooting his teacher out of anger has cost him 28 years of his life, seven years of probation and house arrest; however those 35 years of imprisonment are going to be filled with reflection, large “what ifs?” and remorse. Roche explained how Brazill changed quite rapidly from a seventh grade boy into a hardened, forced to mature man in the short year and half he awaited trial. His crime may have been clear cut, and yes his sentencing is fair to the families of Barry Grunow, the slain teacher, and as an example that must be set, but I am a little disappointed in the authors for depicting Nathaniel Brazill as a child when he was a well-regarded young adult.
2) By searching for information about death penalty of minors, I stumbled upon human rights in various foreign countries and how kids under the age of 18 are being executed for crimes committed. Some are serious and others are just acts of passion or immaturity and are saddening to read. Our Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the death penalty for minors must be set at age 18 and that any crimes committed before that cannot subject to execution. Interestingly enough, it was the Christopher Simmons case that went to court. Roper vs. Simmons has ended minor execution in 20 states and Justice Anthony cites a “national census” against the practice. In Iran, the court sentenced Mohammad Reza Haddadi to death at age 17, for a crime he committed at age 15. An interesting and controversial topic, human rights, specifically minor’s and court systems in this instance, is a issue worth looking into.
Simmons: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4518051
http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvConst.cfm#4
Iranian Child Death Penalty: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/The+Iranian+Threat/Human+rights+violations/Iran_human_rights_violations_minors_death_sentence.htm
The first case that I researched was the Thomas Preciado case. He was fourteen years old in the year 1999 when he robbed a store and stabbed to death the owner when she refused to give him money. He was the youngest kid ever to be tried as an adult in Yuba City. He was given 25 years to life in prison, and on top of that he also got second-degree robbery and second-degree burglary for bringing a knife and planning to rob and hurt the store owner. I didn’t realize the extent to what Preciado’s charges were.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43467-dhillon-murder.html
The second case I researched was the Nathaniel Brazil case. He was also only fourteen when he shot his teacher. This happened in the year 2000. I didn’t know that the reason he shot his “favorite” teacher was because on the last day of school he wanted to see his girlfriend, so he threatened the teacher to let him, and when he said no, Nathanial shot him in the head. He got 28 years in prison and then 7 years of probation. Resulting in this murder, the National Education Association is now offering homicide insurance.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
The person I decided to research more about was Nathaniel Brazill. I watched a video on youtube by ABC’s WPBF News titled “Nathaniel Brail speaks to WPBF 25 News.” The video was an interview they had with Nathaniel now that he is 24 and if he felt he had changed now that he is older. His response was that yes he felt he had matured. One thing that I found interesting in this video was that he said he found law interesting and he is working and reading books about law. It says he recently got a paralegals degree in law by the University of Florida. He also says that, because he spends so much time in the library reading law books, he has been able to win some of his inmates cases. He recently filed a federal law suit against the jail officials where he was staying at, forcing them to change his stay at the prison into a different one. Although the case was denied because of lack of evidence, he says he does have the support and has enough evidence.
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he6gq3_hlSM )
After reading the article about Nathaniel Brazill, I found out that the judge only gave him 28 years in prison, which to me seemed fair because of his circumstances. He was an honors student at his school and was a schoolyard leader. His actions of killing his supposed favorite teacher did not seem justified, as if killing is justified at all. At the hearing his defense attorneys wrote a statement for him to read to attempt to spare the life in prison sentencing.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
I researched the story of Lionel Tate. He was the youngest person in American history to be sentenced to life in prison at the age of 12. His conviction was dropped due to a “technicality” and ended up serving 3 years in a juvenile prison, one year of house arrest, ten years of probation, and 1000 hours of community service. Years after being released, he robbed a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint and also had a knife in his pocket. He ruined his second chance at life, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVMartinTate90606.html
I researched the Robert Acuna case and found this article from the Houston Chronicle, the case was on the fence due to the fact that when Acuna committed the murders he was 17, and the main focus on the case and his death penalty was, is he to young? Acuna murdered an elderly couple, whom were his neighbors, he received the death sentence. The article states that Acuna had no emotion what so ever when his horrifying sentence was read by the District judge. It goes on to say that being a teenager does not have the correct decision making skills. The part that I really liked was the end of the article, when the daughter of the couple that was murdered says that Acuna she not grief over her parents but to look at the destruction he has done to his family.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
The second case I researched was the Christopher Simmons case, this case was more violent in my opinion and the punishment was less severe than the Acuna case. Simmons and his friend Benjamin broke into Mrs. Crook’s house and tied her up and put her in the car and put duct tape all over her face and tied her legs and feet together and threw her into the river. Simmons was to receive the death penalty, however his attorneys argued that he shouldn’t receive that because of the age he was when he committed the crime, the Supreme Court agreed. The Supreme Court resentenced him to life in prison without a chance of parole or probation.
http://missourideathrow.com/2008/12/state-of-missouri-v-christopher-simmons/
1. I researched an article called “Murderer Nathaniel Brazill Sues Claiming Civil Rights Violations in Prison” written in July 2011. Apparently, he had filed a lawsuit against a prison official in 2009 and now, he filed a recent suit in April. Brazill feels that it was a civil rights violation for moving him to solitary confinement and transferring him twice to different cells as a result (or revenge) of his first suit. In the middle of serving his non-parole 28 year prison sentence, the 25 year old Brazill has been studying law since his conviction and is representing himself in court. He has built up a pretty solid case for himself, and people speculate that it will go to trial. Wish him luck!
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/murderer-nathaniel-brazill-sues-claiming-civil-rights-violations-1621323.html
2. Two years after being convicted of murder (not serving any time) and being put on probation, Lionel Tate was found with a knife and had 5 years of probation added. Just last year he was caught with a gun and robbing a pizza man; for violating parole, the judge gave him 30 years in prison. Tate pushed his luck too far and now he’s serving time, not for murder, but for violating parole. People feel like the judge was trying to help him , but now Tate’s life is a wasted opportunity. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/a_life_wasted_for_lionel_tate.html
For this weeks discussion board I researched the Lionel Tate case. This case was about a 12 year old boy who stomped his six year old playmate to death and said that he was imitating a wrestler. According to The New York Times Lionel Tate was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. He was later released in 2004 with ten years probation. He was later found outside at 2 A. M. With An eight inch pocket Knife. This added five more years to his probation sentencing. The judge said that one more thing like this would not be tolerated. Then he robbed a pizza delivery man and pleaded guilty to the charges.
According to a New York Times article, by Adam Liptak, Christopher Simmons, a 17 year old who drowned 46 year old Shirley Cook in a river. During the trial, the prosecutors din’t think age should be a factor (42). According to http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Simmons in that the death penalty doesn’t apply to those under 18. Simmons went through physical and mental abuse, drugs, and possible mentally ill status. In my opinion no one deserves to die, no matter what they did.
According to a New York Times article, by Adam Liptak, Robert Acuna, an 18 year old was sentenced to death row, for killing two elderly neighbors and taking their car (41). No one deserves to die in my opinion, but what really shocked me was his cyber post at http://www.deathrow-usa.us/robert_acuna.htm wanting for someone to write to him, because he feels sad, regretful, and worried that he’s moments away from death.
Post # 1: I researched the Robert Acuna case from the liptak article. The source for post one is: http://www.deathrow-usa.us/robert_acuna.htm. I guess robert Acuna was on death row even though he was a kid when he committed a murder. The crime was vicious and that is why he earned a spot on the Texas Death Row. For some reason on the home page there is a German translation of a paragraph that Robert Acuna was quoted as saying. I thought it was crazy that the prosecutors charged Robert Acuna with capital punishment for murdering somebody execution style.
I researched Nathaniel Brazill and how he was tried as an adult. Nathaniel Brazill was only 13 when he had shot and killed his middle school teacher. Nathaniel was tried as an adult and sent to prison for 28 years. “I feel that my punishment was too harsh i was still a child when i committed that crime,” tells us Nathaniel on his view of whether the punishment was fair or not in his circumstance. Nathaniel also talked about how prison has changed his life and how he looks on the more bright side of things.
http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/nathaniel-brazill-11-years-later
I read the artice “Manson Echo in Philly Teen Murder Case” and how the 16 year old Jason Sweeney was beaten to death. Jason was lured into a forest area which is locally called “the trails” to have sexual intercourse with his new girlfriend. Once Jason had arrived he was brutally beaten and killed. From reading these articles it is honestly amazing to me of how such young human beings can commit such disgusting and horrifically painful acts without even thinking through them.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125030&page=1#.TzitMPljPDc
I always come into these research post assignments having already formulated an opinion. Unfortunately for me when I do a more thorough search on the subject I start questioning myself.
This was the way I felt about the Brazil case. While reading the article “Nate Brazill, Sentenced to Grow Up in Prison” published by Tim Roche, I was able to see more aspects of his Brazills case. When I read the article in class I immediately took the opposing side to Nathaniel. I originally believed that he received to light of a punishment for murdering his “favorite teacher”. But after reading the article in the Times I was able to find multiple pieces of info i had not known. These include: Bad family life, A grade student, may have been an accident, extremely sorry, acted on sheer impulse, among other things. Another interesting aspect of the article is that it touches on the fact how growing up in prison has affected and will continue to affect him.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
I also researched Lionel Tate and his case. Turns out that Tiffany and Lionels mothers were long time friends who grew up together in Jamaica. And also Lionel was arrested for robbery as well. Tate is a multiple offender of law breaking. It gets one to think that maybe if he hadn’t killed Tiffany and gone through the trials of the case, if he would have turned out better. Here is the link to the article.
http://antonia-monacelli.hubpages.com/hub/Murderous-Children-Lionel-Tate
Post #2: For my second post I researched the 71 juveniles who were on the death row. This topic comes from the Liptak article. My source for the research is: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2009/11/11/supreme-court-weighs-juvenile-life-sentences. And bassicly this article talks about how children that have been put away for life for murdering someone shouldn’t be locked away for life because it falls into a cruel and unusual punishment. And there is a bill from the u.n. that doesn’t allow a country to try its juveniles for a crime that would end up taking his entire life, so no more life without parole for these juveniles.
Researching Rober Acuna, I found out that he was the last juvenile sentenced to death row before the US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles in March 2005. It’s nice to see that Acuna was moved off death row. However, he is still sentenced to life in prison. Also, while I was researching Acuna’s case I came across a journal entry from him. When I first saw it I didn’t believe that it was actually real and I’m still not convinced but it’s really eerie reading it.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-03-02/news/0503020254_1_juvenile-killers-juvenile-executions-texas-defender-service
http://www.deathrow-usa.us/robert_acuna.htm
The article on Lionel Tate was very interesting especially since the article we read in class left it a cliff hanger. This article tied all the pieces together. So the first trial he was sentenced to 1st degree murder, prison for life and no chance of parole. But, they decided to retry him and gave him 2nd degree murder, which seemed fair to me, with three years of prison, house arrest and community service. After reading this article however it’s clear that Lionel Tate is a troubled guy, after getting his second chance he blows it. He got one warning and now he’s back in prison for 40 more years. It’s unfortunate that the one murder was an innocent accident but after everything it seems he isn’t sane. I hope in prison he is getting psychological help.
http://antonia-monacelli.hubpages.com/hub/Murderous-Children-Lionel-Tate
1) The first article I read was on Robert Acuna; that case was actually the most interesting one to me. I was shocked that they sentenced him to death, but it seemed to be a justified solution. He had murdered two elderly neighbors in “cold blood.” He “deserved” to die. He was also eighteen when the verdict was made, which did not help him on his part of the case. The elderly once paid Robert to mow their lawn, which is why his mother made this comment, “[He is] a kind and gentle soul.” He was not expected to be the child who would commit such a crime. But on the other hand, the district attorney stated that “[Robert] has evil in his heart;” he was seventeen at the time of the crime which also proved he had the mental capability to know what was right and wrong. Acuna was sentenced to death because it is an adult sentence, and in most states in the U.S., children seventeen and older are aloud to be tried as adults.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Robert-Acuna-1932628.php
2)

The other post is on Nathaniel Brazill, I chose this one because it was a little interesting, and his photo proved to show that he does look a little intimidating (as you can see). I just thought that it made scense that he was sentenced as an adult. I mean, Nathaniel did regret what he had done, he could not even watch a show which related to his case a lot. I feel for him, because he can’t take back what he had done; the school shooting was not a dream, it was reality, and it hurt. He served 428 days in jail, awaiting his trial; this alone was enough punishment, but the law wanted to get him for everything they could. A fourteen year old should not be sentenced as an adult, under any circumstances. There is no state in the country that sentences anyone under sixteen as an adult, but they have made exceptions, so why stop at Nathaniel Brazill?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
The article “Nate Brazill, sentenced to grow up in prison” by Tim Roche, it is explained the outcome of the sentence of Nathaniel Brazill. Brazill was a teenager who cried in his cell, a judge gave him 28 years in prison instead of life in prison. The article says that many people belived that Brazill should had gotten life in prison instead of 28 years. I learned that Brazill was an honor student and very liked by his teachers. Brazill shot his favorite teacher, angered because he wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to his other peers in class on the last day of school. According to Brazill it was an accident, and over and over he explains how sorry he feels.
In the article “Leniency for Lionel Tate?” the of the killing of the 6 year old girl Tiffiny is explained. The 12 year old boy Lionel Tate had beaten her up, him not understanding what was going on. He was punished as an adult without a parole and sentenced life in prison. In the article Tate is described as an ordinary boy who didn’t quite understand the meaning of a life sentence. At one point Lionel was offered 3 years of prison and 10 years of probation and counseling and therapy, but neither did Lionel, nor his mother or his attorneys accepted the deal. Lionel said he was sorry that he had killed Tiffiny and as he was told that he had a life sentence in prison he began to cry, and then he had developed depression and eating disorders. However, Tate’s mother has a new attorney and she continues in hopes of reducing Tate’s year sin prison.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123746&page=3
In an article about Lionel Tate’s sentencing on the website http://www.tgorski.com/news_analysis/lionel_tate_sentencing.htm, it stated the trial was full of misfortune because the mother did not believe that her son could be tried as an adult in first degree and suffer a life sentence. Unluckily, the judge was a tough prosecutor in his past profession, so the chance of a reduced verdict was minimal. Mr. Padowitz, the prosecutor declared that the crime fit the severity that Lionel Tate was tried for.
In the act that was passed in Californian legislative in 2000, Proposition 21 increased punishment related to gang-related felonies, can try children 14 years or older for murder or specified sex offenses, “designates additional crimes as felonies and serious felonies,” and “registration for gang related offenses” (http://primary2000.sos.ca.gov/VoterGuide/Propositions/21.htm).
Looking into the more recent background of what’s happening in the Robert Acuna case and found that Robert Acuna has been charged with capital murder. Mr. Acuna killed an elderly couple who were the at the ages of 74 and 75, but the mother of Acuna is still positively convinced that her son did not kill those two neighbors of theirs. Robert Acuna is still in court being tried to see if he will eventually be sentenced to death because if his murders. Now 25 years old, Acuna isn’t getting out of jail anytime soon, and might not get out if jail at all. http://thecyberseekerssociety.yuku.com/topic/1736#.Tzi00id5mc0
Nathaniel Brazil has been called many mean and nasty name throughout the article I’ve been reading. But within the nastiness and mean hearted name calling, there are splinters of remorse. Remorse and sadness being felt for (then 13 year old) Nathaniel Brazil. “some sadness for the ruination of a 13-year-old’s life,” said Christopher Rubby in his article, Natural Born Killer in 2001. Nathaniel Brazil was sentenced to 26 years in prison and is now known as a “natural born killer” to all.
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/5/16/225918.shtml
I decided to research Lionel Tate who was tried for the killing of a six year old girl when he was only nine in 1999. In 2004 the courts decided to overturn the original decision and place him on probation instead of him having to do jail time. In 2005 Tate was charged for robbing a pizza man and having a gun. From this, Tate was convicted for 30 years.
Christopher Simmons was arrested after tying down, beating, drowning and dumping a Woman by the name Sherly Crooks. She was dumped in a local river by Simmons but was eventually recovered and led the incident directly to Simmons. Almost all of the family members of Simmons and close friends said he was a loving and friendly neighbor, he is caring and even a fun kid. Even one of the judges was debating wether or not to even prsecute him because the judge thought Simmons didn’t fit the character being explain before him. Christopher Simmons never had a single mark on his permanent records and is now Sentenced to death according to this article in 2005. http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm
While researching about the 71 juveniles that were in death row, I stumbled across the table of characteristics of those offenders. In the general audience who listen to this type of news would expect to think that the ethnicity of this person would be in the colour section, and they are right, but what they, the readers don’t see is that a very large portion of offenders are in fact, white or Caucasian, I myself was a believer that offenders were mainly all of colour, ranging from blacks to Asian and Mexican, ethnicity. In this site I found that 24 were white while 29 were blacks and a scatter of Latinos, Asians, and Native Amer. were left.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/juvenile-offenders-who-were-death-row
As I was looking more into the Prop. 21 ballot of California in 2000, I found the circumstances that had to be met whether the juvenile offender was to be able to be tried as an adult, certain murder and sex crimes have to be met and can be tried only when the offender is 14 years old.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_21,_Treatment_of_Juvenile_Offenders_%282000%29
I did some research on Nathaniel Brazill for this post. It turns out Brazil was an honors student and received A’s in his classes. It was also stated that Brazill was surrounded by domestic abuse and alcohol at home. There is a pretty recent interview with Brazill. He states that he is more mature and wiser and said that he has received a paralegal degree from a University of Florida correspondence course. He has one a few lawsuits for inmates and wrote and filed his own federal lawsuit against prison officials.
Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he6gq3_hlSM
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,169246,00.html
For my second post i did some research on Lionel Tate since he was the only 12 when he was arrested. He was in house arrest in 2004 but was brought into custody when the police found him outside his home armed with a knife. The judge added 5 more years to his probation but was arrested in 2005 for armed robbery. He was then sentenced to 30 years in prison without probation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/us/19sentence.html?ref=lioneltate
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/national/02tate.html?ref=lioneltate
After reading a article on Lionel Tate, of which Antonia Monacelli wrote in the New York times, I stopped feeling sorry for him. The part that discussed me the most about the case was the amount of injuries he inflicted upon little six year old Tiffany Eunick. He left her “with 35 injuries. Amongst them, Tiffany had a cracked skull, a broken rib, a lacerated liver, hemorrhaged kidneys, bleeding in her brain, and dozens of bruises on her little body”(p.6). I find this to be inexcusable but due to his age he i thought that second degree murder was reasonable. I changed my opinion on the matter thought when he was let out and violated his prole twice, robbed a pizza, and had a gun pointed to him at point blank.
In the Christopher Simmons case, i felt that he should have been convicted with voluntary man slaughter. Sentencing him to death in my opinion was to extreme for my taste because he was abused by his step father, neglected emotionally, drug addicted and had schizophrenia. All his neighbors said that he was also a good child and that he was caring and very nice. To me this is enough to combat the courts decision to execute him. http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm
In 1993, Christopher Simmons and one of his friends, Charles Benjamin, broke in to neighbor Shirley Crook’s house, tied her up, blind folded her, and threw her over a bridge. At the trial, Simmons testified to the murder, and one of his other friends testified against him. The jury that sentenced Simmons was never adequately informed of Simmons’ social history, possible mental condition, and the physical and mental abuse he suffered as a child. By his teen years, Simmons was drinking hard alcohol and smoking marijuana almost daily. Simmons’ family also had a generational history of psychiatric illness. In 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court vacated his death sentence, saying that juvenile executions violated the 8th Amendment.
http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/juvCSimmons.cfm
I researched Lionel Tate for this post. It turns out that since his case from being tried as an adult in the death of Tiffany he has found himself in a vicious circle of coming in and out of prison, and in and out of parole. Tate has not had a normal life because of the system that has trapped him. Robbery as well as other felonies keep him from living normally
In Christopher Simmons case he was a kid from a clean backround without any previous charges and now faces death. I feel that this was quite unfair and should have had a closer and deeper review of him and his backround to rightfully charge him.
In 1999, Thomas Preciado of Yuba City stabbed and killed a convenience store clerk when he was just 14 years old. A second degree murder conviction, which Preciado is thought to have committed, carries a sentence of 15 years to life. He was found innocent of first-degree murder but guilty of second-degree. The prosecutor at the trial said that there was evidence that Preciado had planned the murder, and should be convicted of first-degree murder. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, which gave him a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Preciado’s uncle claimed that he shouldn’t even be in an adult courtroom. The only reason he was there, he said, was because the victim’s family was wealthy and influential. Preciado’s mom, Naomi Ramirez, didn’t deny her son’s involvement in the stabbing but felt it was unfair for him to be tried in an adult court. She says, “But yet, they do one thing wrong and they become adults, when they don’t even have the mentality to understand what it means. They don’t. Children do not have the same comprehension that adults do.”
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43449-hedberg-degree.html
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43467-dhillon-murder.html
Proposition 21 was passed in California in 2000. It increased a variety of criminal penalties committed by youth, and also incorporated many of them into the adult criminal justice system. There were increased penalties for gang related crimes, including the death penalty for gang related murder. Juveniles 14 or older charged with murder or certain sex offenses required adult trials. The extra prison sentences would result in some offenders spending more time in state prison, increasing the cost to operate prisons. Prop 21 passed with 62 percent of the vote. Many people were against this proposition because rehabilitation is considered a better, more effective way of reducing crime. Juveniles wouldn’t be able to go to rehabilitation if they were tried in an adult court. Three of the major corporations that provided money for this measure weren’t even California-based.
http://www.leanos.net/projects/target/images/Proposition%2021%20.pdf
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/942
Lionel Tate at the age of 12 killed a little girl when imitating body slamming wrestling moves. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was one of the youngest defendents in the U.S. to ever be sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. He was tried as an adult and convicted with first degree murder.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-277536.html
Thomas Preciado at the age of 15 went into a mini mart demanding money and stabbed a worker with a kitchen knife. He was found guilty of first degree murder. He was the youngest person in Sutter County ever tried for murder as an adult. He faces 25 years to life in prison.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/preciado-43467-dhillon-murder.html