3 teens accused of setting boy on fire face attempted murder charges

That's up in the air to me. On one hand, they are youngsters and they have a greater chance than older people to change and that is supposed to be the whole point of our prison system here, rehabilitation. On the other, if they can and did do this as teenagers, what the hell would they do as adults with even more dangerous things at their disposal?

 

This **** is unreal. From the poor victim, to what drove the kids to do such a thing and finally to the people giving death threats to the suspects' family.

Makes you wonder if violence in the media should be reigned in or at the very least, question its role, if any, in this tragedy.

 

Try them as adults. Kids these days know what they are doing despite the fact that they are making more and dumber mistakes.

 

Try them as adults and lock em away for life....that is unbelievable........some people should not be free in society....

DD

 

I would be afraid to see them on the streets again. They are so violent as kids. Can you imagine what kind of men, they will grow up to be?

 

If you can do something as inhumane as this....man.

Agreed, no leeway due to their age, to commit a crime in this manner would require something from an extremely evil mind that would change little with age.


I am in disbelief, in this day and age that we can see the quintessence of satan in our youth.

 

I can't seem to understand this though....wtf did they think was going to happen?!?!?!?!

You burn a guy alive...and for $40 he didn't pay you? Well, it seems they were pissed he snitched but comeon. Thats like saying you hit someone with a car, full speed to punish them, which is still not as bad as in this case.

It is pure torture the kid has to live with for the rest of his life. I pray that his face and body will heal and he can get plastic surgery ease the life long depression and sadness he will experience. The kids in jail should work for as long as it takes to pay off the surgery and major compensation if I ran the judicial system.

A part of me looks as them as kids...a product of their probable poor upbringing and treating $40 as a life or death situation but only pure evil would drive someone to do this.

 

Instead of trying them adults, the laws should be changed so that kids who murder kids are held more liable.

Otherwise it doesn't make sense. They aren't adults, so how can they be tried as them? What does it mean to say a 15 year old is really 18? They aren't. If you are going to try them as adults, why have juvenile laws in the first place?

 

Fry the a-holes and be done with it. 15 is old enough to understand the consequences of their actions.

 

Are they not what we made them?

Rocket River
these type of things seem to becoming more and more . . . unsurprising

 

They're not given the privileges of adults, they shouldn't be held to the same responsibilities. They're probably not going to be incarcerated in adult ward, no other aspect of their prison or non-prison life prior to 18 or 21 will have a adult component, so the status is only being arbitrarily administered to ensure they get a tougher sentence. It's very possible they have life or developmental disadvantages that drove them to this behavior, by prematurely trying them as adults you're just adding one more to the pile.

 

I think your first statement is a complete cop out. This is not society's fault. These are just some f'ed up kids.

I agree with the second statement, but I think that has more to do with increased media exposure than increased prevalence of these types of crimes. Fifty years ago, no one outside of their community would have heard about this.

 

While I agree that kids being tried as adults is kind of whack, I don't think this works. I mean, should the kids be held less accountable if they set a grown man or woman on fire?

I think you really do need to judge it on a case by case basis. Even if it is a flawed method and can cause a lot of unfairness. I believe there was a case discussed earlier about an underaged girl killing a man who abused her. That's definitely a huge contrast to some boys setting someone on fire over $40 and ratting them out on burglary.

 

This is a horrible terrible thing, but the reason we don't try children as adults is because they do not think of the consequences before they act. It's why mentally handicapped are not held to the same standard as adults.

Especially in situations where children are learning their social roles i.e. kids being mean to the awkward one and things get out of hand. They either don't have the mental horsepower or experience to see beyond the excitement of the moment.


Evidence will be presented in the form of lifelong regret and guilt. That's not to say there shouldn't be punishment, severe punishment.... but we need to remember that kids aren't playing with the full deck, and groups of kids sink to the lowest common denominator much more quickly than do adults who are also susceptible to group think and mob mentality.

 

The primary goal of the US prison system is not, and never has been, rehabilitation.

 

RR, sometimes people need to take personal responsibility. As individuals and as parents. You can't blame society for everything. I didn't make these kids do crap. The TV didn't tell them to light a kid on fire. Violent games may desensitize kids to violence but you don't see every kid playing GTA lighting a kid on fire.

These types of things have been happening since of the dawn of time. Violent crime has actually gone down overall for a while now. We just happen to hear more of it in the national media because of the internet and CNN.

On a different topic, how do you try kids for attempted murder if there was no clear intent to kill someone? I agree with adults part, and putting them in jail for a long time, but I don't know about attempted murder. Assault and and battery with intent for extreme bodily harm would be more fitting by definition.

 

If the reason that they shouldn't be charged as adults is that they 'can't see beyond their choices' then I'd argue plenty of adults can't either. Kids aren't stupid you know, I should know, I'm still only 16 and there are loads of mature (and moronic) people that I know. Also I think it's ridiculously in it's own right to one day say 'Ok, you are too young' and the next day 'Ok, we can charge you as an adult now.'

 

Perhaps it is time to change the laws of this country regarding juveniles. Kids these days are maturing much faster and it's silly to let them go on a count of "boys will be boys". I'm glad these kids are being punished for ruining the life of another kid. It wouldn't have been fair to trial them differently after such an evil act.

 

Teens always had the capacity to mature. The problem started when our society tried to turn them into kids. Now we act surprise when a "kid" kills.