Boy tried as an adult

[madmusic]

Prosecutors overreached

July 23, 2006

It’s worse than we thought.

A 14-year-old boy’s transfer to adult jail wasn’t just the result of misjudgment.

It was the result of prosecutorial “manipulation.”

That’s the decision of Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr., who said that Waynesboro prosecutors “sought to manipulate” an indictment handed down against the boy and improperly transferred his case from juvenile court.

“A conviction stemming from such a prosecutorial manipulation cannot stand,” he wrote in his letter of opinion.

Working without pay because they felt so strongly about the case, two Charlottesville lawyers persistently filed requests to get the boy, now age 15, transferred from adult jail back to a juvenile detention center.

...

Attorneys also contended that the boy was at physical and emotional risk. While in jail, he had witnessed a suicide attempt and been placed in a cell with a sex offender.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149189319474&path=!news!opinion

[pooja]

1. yet, a 16yr old is a child and cannot decide if he wants a cancer

treatment...

[movonne]

2. What a sick country we have become...

[madmusic]

4. Nah, just another case of "judicial activism" - bleh nt

[sandnsea]

3. Still shouldn't be in adult jail

Being tried as an adult doesn't mean adult jail. People fought for years to get kids out of adult jails so they wouldn't be physically and sexually assaulted. I don't support this juvenile/adult thing anyway, but it should have no affect on where a juvenile is housed. I don't understand what is wrong with Virginia or any other state that puts up with this.

[pitohui]

6. this "child" was an armed robber at 14

an armed robber sticks a gun in your face and if you don't do as he says, and sometimes even if you do, he shoots your head off

i have no problem w. such being in adult jails, if they are tried as juveniles, then they are released back into the community at age 18 or age 21 to contribute preying on the rest of us

there is a point at which the right of decent people not to be terrorized by born predators is more important than the right of predators to "game" the system

this type of predator, if he was in a juvenile facility, is prob. bullying and perhaps even sexually attacking the smaller kids there, let's get real

[sandnsea]

7. They can go to juvenile facilities

even though they're tried as adults. They can stay in the juvenile facilities until they turn 18 and then serve their adult sentence from there.

You've made your lack of empathy abundantly clear on this board, to continue discussing much of anything with you is pointless.

[U4ikLefty]

9. So a 14 year old is a terrorist? Shall we put him in Gitmo???

I knew some people would buy the paradigm shift to labeling them "terrorist". I fear that you viewpoint is not uncommon in this country...Oh, how we are falling!!!

[madmusic]

10. Where do you see "gun" in there?

Not only that:

Unconstitutional? That’s serious business.

The boy had been charged with two armed robberies - but only one of the charges was approved by a judge for transfer to circuit court, where the juvenile defendant would be treated as an adult.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Weidner IV has admitted in court papers that he believed the evidence in that case was weak.

So instead of presenting evidence to a jury in the case that was approved for circuit court, he presented evidence in the case that was not approved.

The approved case was so weak, the prosecutor tried to use the unapproved case.

Sounds like innocence to me. So maybe he not only didn't do anything with a gun, he might not have done anything at all.

EDIT: P.S. More "born criminal" bullshit.

[Stargazer99]

5. Well, now our society has created another living

human problem in all probability a worse menance to society than what ever the orginal crime was. Sometimes you wonder what humans use for brains!

[Tenseiga]

8. armed robbery

pretty serious stuff there. Not quite Murder or Rape but pretty serious in its own right. I'm uncomfortable with him being in a cell with a sex offender, though.

Yet another reason to fight the gun grabbers tooth and nail.